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BEGINNER’S CIVICS FOR 


NORTH DAKOTA 


BY 

JAMES E. BOYLE, Ph. D. 

n 

PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE IN THE 
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH DAKOTA 

AUTHOR OF “THE FINANCIAL HISTORY OF KANSAS,” 
“THE GOVERNMENT OF NORTH DAKOTA,” ETC. 



O 1 ) 


NEW YORK CINCINNATI CHICAGO 

AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 






Copyright, 1911 , by 
JAMES E. BOYLE 

Entered at Stationers’ Hall, London 
beginner’s civics no. dak. 

E- P i 



©CL A 305152 

»V c ‘ l 




PREFACE 


The aim of this book is to develop civic efficiency. It 
covers the whole field of civil government, both national 
and State. It is designed to meet the needs of those who 
are beginning the study of the subject, especially those in 
the grades below the high school. 

There are two things emphasized in this book, (1) the 
Framework of Government, and (2) the Government in 
Operation. 

Since the framework of our government is the Consti¬ 
tution, the Federal and State Constitutions are studied 
together, and compared with each other, in a parallel column 
arrangement. 

The operations of government are vitally interesting and 
important to us all, and hence much stress is laid on the 
actual activities of our government. An earnest effort has 
been made not only to make this feature of the work in¬ 
teresting and stimulating but also to relate it to the pupil’s 
own observations and experiences with government. 

The teacher in using this book will find help in the ques¬ 
tions on the text, the questions suggested by the text, and 
the select bibliography at the close of each chapter. The 
successful teacher will also undoubtedly supplement the 
book with these two devices:— 

1. Current Events .—At least once a week a searching re¬ 
view should be made of current events, for which purpose 
those events which have political and social significance 
should be selected. The school should receive either a good 

3 




4 


PREFACE 


daily paper, or a good independent weekly paper. On this 
point the county superintendent should be consulted. 

2. Scrapbook .—By all means let the teacher see that a 
scrapbook on civics is prepared by the class. It should 
contain things relating to politics and civics, such as clip¬ 
pings from the ordinary newspaper or magazine, pictures of 
officials, sample ballots, campaign announcements and post¬ 
ers, party platforms, official messages and reports, news items 
about courts, trials, proceedings of city councils, county 
commissioners’ proceedings, educational statistics, etc. The 
material should be arranged in the same order as the sub¬ 
jects treated in this book, as shown by the table of contents. 
A suitable scrapbook can be secured from any local dealer 
at a very small cost. One large scrapbook may be used by 
the entire class, or smaller scrapbooks by the individual 
members of the class. If this collection is annually carefully 
compiled, each year will see a good up-to-date scrapbook 
added to the school library. Teacher and pupils should 
cooperate in making this collection. Back numbers of such 
a scrapbook would soon acquire real value as records of 
political history,—local, State, and national. 

JAMES ERNEST BOYLE. 

University of North Dakota, 

Grand Forks, North Dakota. 


CONTENTS 

PART I 
GOVERNMENT 

PAGE 


Chapter I. Family Government. 9 

Need of Government. The Family. Importance of the Fam¬ 
ily. Cooperation and Government. 

Chapter II. Civil Government. 19 

Definitions: State; Citizen; Rights and Duties. Kinds of 
State Government. Three Branches of Government. 
Constitution. The Federal Principle. Civil Government 
and Civics. 


PART II 

FRAMEWORK OF OUR GOVERNMENT 

Chapter III. Constitutions of the United States and 

North Dakota...25 

Preamble. Bill of Rights. Constitution Proper: Legislative 
Branch; Executive Branch; Judicial Branch; the States 
and Territories; Miscellaneous Provisions; Ratification; 
Future Amendments; Elective Franchises; Municipal Cor¬ 
porations; Other Corporations; Education; School and Pub¬ 
lic Lands; County and Township Organization; Revenue 
and Taxation; Public Debt and Public Works; Militia; 
Impeachment and Removal; Miscellaneous; Prohibition. 
Amendments. 


5 





6 


CONTENTS 


PART III 

WORKINGS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT page 

Chapter IV. The Executive. 98 

Introductory. The Chief Executive, The President; Nomina¬ 
tion and Election of President: Qualifications, Term, Salary; 
Powers and Duties; Senatorial Courtesy; Spoils System and 
the Civil Service. Vice President. Cabinet. State. 
Treasury. War. Justice. Post Office: How Postmasters 
are Chosen; Rates of Postage. Navy. Interior: Public 


Lands; Pensions; Indians; Patents; Education. Agriculture. 
Commerce and Labor. 

Chapter V. Congress. 118 

Senate. House of Representatives: the Speaker. Congress. 
Process of Lawmaking. Committee System of Congress. 
Criticism. Summary. 

Chapter VI. The Judiciary. 128 


Federal Judges. Federal Courts: Supreme Court; Circuit 
Courts of Appeals; District Courts; Court of Commerce. 
Jurisdiction of Federal Courts. Equity. Workings of the 
Courts. Dartmouth College Case. 

Chapter VII. Finance and Money. 137 

Finance. Federal Expenditures: Objects. Sources of Income: 

The Federal Tax on Sugar, Tobacco, Beer, Whisky; Tariff. 
Criticisms. Money: Real Money; Credit Money. 

Chapter VIII. Railroads. 144 

Necessity of. Importance of. Railroad History: Bonds; 
Stock; Capitalization; Watered Stock; Pooling. Railroad 
Legislation: Interstate Commerce Act; Sherman Anti-trust 
Law; Elkins Act; Commerce Court. Aim of Railroad Regu¬ 
lation. Success of Regulation. 

PART IV 

WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 

Chapter IX. Historical. 159 

Native Inhabitants. Exploration. Lewis and Clark Expedi¬ 
tion. Settlement. Dakota Territory. State of North Da¬ 
kota; Growth of the State: Population, Resources and 
Climate. 








CONTENTS 


7 


PAGE 

Chapter X. The Executive .167 

Chief Executive: Powers and Duties. Lieutenant Governor. 
Executive Departments: State; Auditor; Treasurer; Edu¬ 
cation; Insurance; Railroads; Law; Agriculture and Labor. 
Boards and Commissions. State Institutions. 

Chapter XI. The Legislature.174 

The Legislative Assembly. Members. Organization of the 
Two Houses. Process of Lawmaking. Legislative Powers. 
Legislative Reference Library. 

Chapter XII. The Judiciary .180 

Organization of the Courts. The Work of the Courts. Local 
Courts. Bail. District Courts. Supreme Court. The Jury. 


Judicial Procedure: A Criminal Action; A Civil Action; New 
Trial and Appeal. 

Chapter XIII. Local Government.192 

Subdivisions. Organs. Six Functions of Local Government. 

Chapter XIV. Good Roads.195 

Need of Good Roads. Our Present System. Changes Pro¬ 
posed. Progress Made. 

Chapter XV. Public Health.206 

Control of Contagious Disease. Prevention of Disease. Pub¬ 
lic Health Machinery. 

Chapter XVI. Charity and Poor Relief.213 

Charity. The County Poor. The County Afflicted. 

Chapter XVII. Police and Justice.217 


Important Function. Police Officers in City and Country. 
State Reform School. 

Chapter XVIII. Local Finance and Taxation.221 

Local Tax Authorities. Assessment of Property. Equaliza¬ 
tion. Collection. 

Chapter XIX. Education.. . 226 

Our Educational System. The School District. Flags. Free 
Textbooks. The School Board. The Teacher. Teachers’ 
Institutes. Branches to be Taught. The Pupil. Child 
Labor Law. Support of Schools: Taxation; State Tuition 
Fund; Borrowing. Study of a School Budget. 











8 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Chapter XX. County, Township, and Village.235 

Introductory. The County: County Commissioners. Other 
County Officers. County Boards: The Township. Board 
of Health. Board of Review. Town Meeting. Township 
Officers. The Village: Incorporation. Officers. Study of 
Budget of County, Township, and Village. 

Chapter XXI. The City. 251 

City Government: Charter from State Legislature. City 
Election in April. Two Forms of City Government. Mayor 
and Council Plan; City Council; Mayor and Departments; 
Police Magistrate and City Justice of the Peace. The Com¬ 
mission Plan: The North Dakota Law; City Commissioners. 

Chapter XXII. State Revenue and Expenditure . . . 263 

Expenditure: Limitations; Objects. Revenue: Taxation; Fees 
and Licenses; Industries; Land; How Railroads are Taxed. 
Debt. 

Chapter XXIII. Elections and Political Parties . . . 269 

Nominations: The Primary Election; Party Committees; Boss, 
Ring, and Machine; Independent Nominations. The Elec¬ 
tion. 

Appendix.278 

United States Supreme Court. United States Circuit Courts 
of Appeals. Popular and Electoral Vote for President, 1888. 




PART I 


GOVERNMENT 

CHAPTER I 

FAMILY GOVERNMENT 

“It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished 
work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. 
It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining 
before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion 
to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; 
that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; 
that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and 
that government of the people, by the people, for The people, shall not 
perish from the earth.” Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address,” 1863. 

Need of Government.—Man has been called a 
“political animal.” He is by nature one of the most 
social of all beings. The lives of most men are spent 
in daily contact with the lives of other human beings. 
Indeed those unfortunate persons, such as sheep herders, 
who are forced by their occupations to live apart in 
lonely and remote regions, have often become insane 
through sheer loneliness. Persons who have chosen to 
live by themselves in out-of-the-way places have always 
been looked upon as queer, to say the least. Men 
naturally associate with one another, forming a rela- 

9 


10 


GOVERNMENT 


tionship which is called society. Since men associat¬ 
ing with one another do not always know what is the 
right thing to do, or are not always willing to do the 
right thing, disputes and conflicts arise. There are, 
unfortunately, both fools and knaves in the world, and 
both do a great deal of harm. Therefore, since men are 
not perfectly wise, or perfectly good, there must be 
some rules to govern conduct and some power to en¬ 
force these rules. The act of making and enforcing rules 
is called government. 

Each one of us is familiar with such terms as family 
government, school government, and church government. 
The four greatest institutions of all civilized nations 
are the home, the school, the church, and the state. 
Each has its own peculiar government. The state in¬ 
cludes the other three institutions within itself, and 
makes some rules for the protection and preservation 
of •them all. It is with the government of the state, 
chiefly, that this book deals. Yet we must speak briefly 
of the family before entering upon our study of the 
state. 

The Family.—The family came before the state in 
history. For instance, Abraham was the head of a 
great family government long before the Jewish people 
had established a nation or state for themselves. Later 
in their history these people increased greatly in number, 
forming first twelve tribes, and finally one state under 
a king. The Eskimos to-day have no state government, 
no kings, no lawmakers, no judges, but they are regu¬ 
lated by their family government. The fathers and 


FAMILY GOVERNMENT 


11 


aged men make and enforce the few simple rules needed. 
Probably if the history of any great nation could be 
traced back far enough, its beginning would be found 
to be a single family. Hence the family is very im¬ 
portant as a historic institution. But in studying state 
governments of to-day, we find that the family is very 
important for many other reasons. 

Importance of the Family.—No matter how good 
the schools are, the education of the children must de¬ 
pend largely on the family. Abraham Lincoln, for 
instance, had only six months of schooling in his whole 
life, and this was in a log schoolhouse; yet he was 
one of the best educated men this country has ever 
produced. His Gettysburg address is read the world 
over as one of the noblest classics of the English lan¬ 
guage. Lincoln’s unquenchable thirst for learning he 
got, so he tells us, from his mother. At one time he 
walked nine miles a day to attend a log-house school. 
At night he would lie in front of the fireplace and, 
having no slate and no paper, would write and cipher 
with charcoal on the wooden shovel, on boards, and on 
smooth sides of logs, shaving them clean when he 
wanted to write again. It was in his humble cabin 
home, and not in the schoolhouse, that Lincoln edu¬ 
cated himself with an education that was genuine and 
thorough. And, thanks to this home influence, he early 
acquired a taste for books, not books that were silly 
and trashy, but books that were worth while. History 
tells us the names of seven of the principal books which 
were an early influence for good in the Lincoln home. 


12 


GOVERNMENT 


They are: an arithmetic, the Bible, “iEsop’s Fables,” 
“Robinson Crusoe,” Weems’s “Life of Washington,” 
“Pilgrim’s Progress,” and a United States history. 

Nowadays the schoolhouse is in reach of every home. 
But an appreciation of education and a taste for 
learning must be found in the home, if the school is 

to have very much 
influence in educating 
the boy or the girl. 

No matter how 
good the churches 


Pioneer’s Sod House 

are, the child depends, 
for good morals and 
right habits, almost 
entirely on the home 
training. Important 
and helpful as the 
churches are, they can not do this work for the family. 
The home must always do its part. 

No matter how good the doctors are, the health of 
the community depends more on the family than on 
anything else. For instance, a large city recently issued 
the following health bulletin and distributed it among 
the people: 

“We are especially interested in diphtheria and scar¬ 
let fever just now. The warm weather causes the 
children to congregate for play. If the children are 
well, this is well; but if there is one child in the 








FAMILY GOVERNMENT 


13 


group who has a slight sore throat, or a mild scarlet 
fever, it will not be well. A bad neighbor, one who 
neglects ordinary precautions to prevent the spread of 
contagion, is a very dangerous thing—much worse 
than bad laws. Unless neighbors are good neighbors 
on the average, the whole structure of society goes 
to pieces. There are several ways in which a neighbor 



Disorderly Back Yard 


can be a bad neighbor; but there is no way worse than 
that of permitting children to spread contagion.” 

If the family in the country or the city can provide it¬ 
self at all times with pure air, pure water, and pure milk, 
it is likely to remain free from tuberculosis and typhoid 
fever, and will not communicate these dread diseases to 
others. The germs of these diseases are often carried 
from one member of the family to another, or from one 
family to another family. For the cure of diseases, 
doctors are usually called in, but for the prevention of 




14 


GOVERNMENT 


diseases, the family must always remain chiefly re¬ 
sponsible. And prevention is better than cure. 

No matter how excellent the government of a com¬ 
munity may be, it can do little good if the government 
of the home is a failure. Czolgosz, the anarchist who 
was put to death for the murder of President McKinley, 
was surrounded all his life by good schools and good 
churches, yet his own home influences were bad. If 
obedience and proper respect for authority are not 
learned in the home, then the police, the courts, the 
jails, and the prisons all combined cannot preserve law 
and order in the community. Indeed, it is not strange 
that investigators in our prisons have found that the 
inmates there, mostly young men, come as a rule from 
homes broken up by divorce or death, or from homes 
where family government has been a failure. 

Cooperation and Government.—Savages build no 
bridges. No matter how many times the savage must 
cross the stream, he always swims or crosses in a rude 
boat. With the white man it is different. He soon 
gets other white men to help him with their labor or 
money, and a bridge is built, which is then used by all in 
common. This method is best and cheapest for all. 
To build the bridge, men must cooperate, that is, they 
must work together. Savages cannot cooperate. They 
lack the necessary intelligence and character. Hence 
savages build no schoolhouses, no churches, no court¬ 
houses, and no capitol buildings. These things all 
require cooperation. The savage is therefore unfit for 
self-government. Savages do not even build beautiful 


FAMILY GOVERNMENT 


15 


homes, but mere huts, all of the same pattern. If one 
savage should attempt to build his hut bigger and finer 
than the rest, it would be quickly torn down by his 
jealous fellows. The very first step in self-government 
is cooperation. There can be no cooperation, for any 



A Workingman’s Home 


length of time, among thieves any more than among 
savages. Cooperation requires honesty as well as faith 
in one another,—a faith tested by actual experience. 
And the family of to-day is very important for this 
additional reason, that there the child learns his first 
lesson in cooperation. The American home, if it is 
a real home, is based on cooperation. Father, mother, 
and children have each and all their part in the work 
and play and tender ministrations of the home. The 






16 


GOVERNMENT 


work of the home cannot all be done, and righteously 
and nobly done, unless there is cooperation. No games 
can be played unless the players, both losers and winners, 
cooperate in following the rules of the game. In all 
government, whether of the home, the school, the 
church, or the state, cooperation is the fundamental 
thing. One of the great truths in civil government is 
that good families make a good state, bad families a 
bad state. 


Questions on the Text 

1. What does Part I of this book treat of? 

2. Define government. 

3. Show the need of government. 

4. Define society. 

5. Name four common kinds of government. 

6. Which came first, family government or state government? 

7. Give two examples of this truth. 

8. Show the importance of the family from the following stand¬ 

points: 

a. Education. 

b. Morals. 

c. Health. 

d. Good government. 

e. Cooperation. 

9. Illustrate the fact that savages cannot cooperate. 

10. State an important maxim in civil government. 


Questions Suggested by the Text 

1. Debate: “ Which causes more harm in society, the fool or the 

knave ?” 

2. Roosevelt has said that the man and woman who establish a 

good home are performing a noble service. Write an essay 
on “The Making of an Ideal Home.” 


FAMILY GOVERNMENT 


17 


3. Read an account of the boyhood of some criminal, and note the 

weakness of his home training. 

4. How many boys are in the State Reform School at Mandan? 

What can you say concerning the home life of any of these 
boys? 

5. Debate: “Resolved, that a boy’s habits are fixed more by his 

home than by his school life.” 

6. Name the five families who settled first in your school district. 

Where did they come from? 

7. Show that the best government requires the most cooperation. 

8. Show to what extent farmers should be independent and to 

what extent they should cooperate. 

9. Where is more cooperation found, among farmers, or in cities? 

(Consider water supply, paved streets, etc.) 

10. Source study (Scrapbook). 

When Benjamin Franklin lived in Philadelphia, each family 
was supposed to sweep the street in front of its own 
house. This might be called “competition” in street sweep¬ 
ing, but it did not work well. How cooperation was finally 
brought about is told by Franklin in his autobiography in 
these words: “One day I found a poor industrious man who 
was willing to undertake keeping the pavement clean by 
sweeping it twice a week, carrying off all the dirt from be¬ 
fore the neighbors’ doors, for the sum of sixpence per month, 
to be paid l?y each house. I then wrote and printed a paper 
setting forth the advantages to the neighborhood that might 
be obtained by this small expense. ... I sent one of these 
papers to each house, and in a day or two went around to see 
who would subscribe an agreement to pay these sixpences; 
it was unanimously signed, and for a time well executed. 
This raised a general desire to have all the streets paved, 
and made the people more willing to submit to a tax for that 
purpose.” 

In this way street cleaning by the city began. 

Write an essay giving an account of some example of co¬ 
operation you have seen among farmers, such as digging a 
well, building a house, harvesting a crop, the work of a “quilt¬ 
ing party,” etc. 

Civics N. Dak.—2 


18 


GOVERNMENT 


11. What magazines are read in your district? 

a. Secure the following pictures and place them in your 
Civics Scrapbook: A beautiful farmhouse; an ugly farm¬ 
house; a front yard with trees and flowers; a barren front 
yard. 

b. Secure a picture of the first home in your school district. 

References 

“ North Dakota Magazine ” (Address Department of Agriculture 
and Labor, Bismarck). 

Annual Report, State Reform School, Mandan. 

Dunn, The “ Community and the Citizen/’ Chs. 1-6. 

Wright, “ Practical Sociology,” Chs. 5,10,12. 

Allen, “Civics and Health.” 


CHAPTER II 


CIVIL GOVERNMENT 

“With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in 
the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the 
work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who 
shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to do 
all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among our¬ 
selves, and with all nations.” Lincoln’s “Second Inaugural,” 1865. 

Definitions. —Three things are necessary before we 
can have a state, namely, land, people, and a political 
organization. Hence we may define a state as an in¬ 
dependent body of people, organized politically, and 
occupying a definite territory. Persons who are mem¬ 
bers of a state are called citizens. Those things which 
a citizen owes to others are known as his duties; what 
others owe to him, as his rights. It is evident, on second 
thought, that the citizen owes to others the same rights 
that they owe to him—in other words, his rights and 
duties are equal and balance one another. They are 
reciprocal. For example, a person ought not to injure 
or molest the property of others; others should not 
injure his property. Many citizens, however, have a 
much keener perception of their rights than they have 
of their duties. This is one reason why government is 
necessary to-day. 

Kinds of State Government. —There are three prin¬ 
cipal kinds of state governments, — (1) monarchy, 

19 


20 


GOVERNMENT 


government by one person; (2) aristocracy , govern¬ 
ment by the few; (3) democracy , government by the 
many. 

Under a monarchy the ruler may be a czar as in 
Russia, an emperor as in Germany, a king as in Nor¬ 
way, or may have one of many other titles. 

Aristocracies , common in Italian cities five or six 
hundred years ago, especially in the time of Dante, no 
longer exist. Under this form of government a few 
rich and powerful families (literally the “best” families) 
ruled the city or small state. Enemies of these govern¬ 
ments, not believing them to be conducted by the 
“best” families, called them oligarchies (governments 
by a few). 

Democracy is the form of government familiar to all 
Americans. It means government by the people. 
There are two kinds of democracy,—(1) pure demo¬ 
cracy, or government by the people direct; and (2) re¬ 
presentative democracy, or government by elected 
representatives. A pure democracy is practicable only 
in a small community, such as a school district or a 
township. In North Dakota we find an example of 
this form of government only in the township. The 
voters actually meet together in an assembly, the “town 
meeting,” and there proceed to elect the necessary 
officers, to make their own rules, and to vote their own 
township taxes. But in all other subdivisions of our 
government,—school district, village, county, as well as 
State and nation,—we are taxed, not by ourselves, 
but by our elected representatives. Hence our form 


CIVIL GOVERNMENT 


21 


of government is correctly spoken of as being a repre¬ 
sentative democracy, or, in short, a republic. 

Some foreign states to-da}^ have a form of govern¬ 
ment which is a mixture of the monarchic and demo¬ 
cratic forms. England is the best example of this. 
This nation has a king, and is therefore a monarchy in 
form. But this king has no power in the government, 
much less, in fact, than our own President has. The 
people of England, through their representatives in 
the Parliament, rule. Hence the government is a 
representative government in practice. 

Three Branches of Government. —The government 
of our State and nation is based on the principle that 
there are three branches of government. These branches 
are: (1) legislative , or lawmaking; (2) executive, or 
law enforcing; and (3) judicial, or law interpreting. 
To safeguard the liberties of the people,—liberties 
won through centuries of struggle and bloodshed, 
—these three branches are kept separate as far as 
possible. And they are to be kept equal too, as much 
as possible, no one branch being above the other in 
power or dignity. Under Andrew Jackson and Abraham 
Lincoln we had an executive branch stronger than the 
legislative branch. Under Pierce and Buchanan we had 
a legislative branch far stronger than the executive. 
Some decisions of our Supreme Court, overruling laws 
of Congress, have caused recent critics to ask whether 
the judiciary was not getting stronger than the other 
two branches combined. 

Constitution. —The fundamental law or set of prin- 


22 


GOVERNMENT 


ciples under which a state is governed is termed a 
constitution . That a constitution is a necessity, the 
long and bloody experience of mankind has shown. A 
monarch ruling without a constitution, as formerly 
in Russia and Turkey, is almost sure to oppress the 
people. In a republican government like our own, 
a constitution is needed to protect the minority against 
the bad impulses of the majority. It is also necessary 
to protect an ignorant and torpid majority against a 
powerful, unscrupulous minority. 

The Federal Principle.—The citizen of North Da¬ 
kota is a citizen also of the United States. He has 
therefore two governments over him at the same time,— 
two chief executives, two legislative bodies, two judi¬ 
cial systems. Our great republic has been described 
as "an indestructible Union of indestructible States.” 
How much governing power shall be left to the Federal 
government and how much to the separate States? 
The Federal principle is, that each State in the Union 
is a supreme sovereign in all matters affecting it alone, 
and that the Federal government is a supreme sovereign 
in all other matters. To trace the delicate line between 
Federal powers and State powers is a work which has 
occupied the minds of great statesmen. The Civil War 
itself was a test of this great question. One thing, how¬ 
ever, is certain,—the people have the power to alter or 
amend the government to suit themselves, whether it 
be the Federal government or the government of the 
State. 

Civil Government and Civics .—Civil government 


CIVIL GOVERNMENT 


23 


means the institution or collection of institutions by 
which a state makes and enforces rules for its citizens. 
The science which treats of civil government is com¬ 
monly known as civics. 

By analyzing carefully the Constitutions of the 
United States and North Dakota, we can get a clear 
understanding of the framework of our government. 
We are now ready to enter on this task. 

Questions on the Text 

1. What are the three elements of a state? 

2. Define a state. 

3. Who are citizens? 

4. Define rights and duties. Show their relationship. 

5. In this connection,-show one reason why government is neces¬ 

sary to-day. 

6. Name the principal kinds of state governments. 

7. Define each kind. Give an example of each. 

8. What is a pure democracy? A republic? 

9. What kind of government has England? 

10. Name the three branches of government. Define each. 

11. Why should they be kept separate and equal? Have they al¬ 

ways been so kept? 

12. What is a constitution? 

13. Why is a constitution necessary? 

14. What is the Federal principle? Can you explain it? 

15. Show that it is a hard matter to draw the line between Federal 

and State powers. 

16. What is civil government? Civics? 

17. Where can we discover the framework of our government? 

Questions Suggested by the Text 

1. Is the post office in your community under the control of the 
State or the Federal government? The national bank? The 
State bank? 


24 


GOVERNMENT 


2. When is a railroad under State control, and when under Federal 

control? 

3. Did the Jewish nation in the time of Moses have a constitution? 

4. Which is the best form of government and why? 

5. Is the best form of government for an intelligent and moral 

people also the best form of government for an ignorant and 
immoral people? 

6. Debate: “ Resolved, that government by a wise and good king 

is to be preferred to that by ignorant and corrupt representa¬ 
tives” 


References 

Wright, “Practical Sociology,” Ch. 6. 

Bryce, “American Commonwealth” (1910 edition), Vol. I., Chs. 
26-35. 


PART II 


FRAMEWORK OF OUR GOVERNMENT 

CHAPTER III 

CONSTITUTIONS OF THE UNITED STATES AND OF NORTH 

DAKOTA 

“The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make 
and to alter their constitutions of government. But the constitution 
which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act 
of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of 
the power and the right of the people to establish government presup¬ 
poses the duty of every individual to obey the established govern¬ 
ment.” Washington's “Farewell Address,” 1796. 


Lesson 1 


THE CONSTITUTION (Four Parts) 

(Copy and learn the following Outline. See pages 41-97.) 
I.—PREAMBLE 

United States North Dakota 


We, the people of the United 
States, in order to form a more 
perfect union, establish justice, 
insure domestic tranquillity, 
provide for the common de¬ 
fense, promote the general wel¬ 
fare, and secure the blessings of 
liberty to ourselves and our 
posterity, do ordain and estab¬ 
lish this Constitution for the 
United States of America. 


We, the people of North Da¬ 
kota, grateful to Almighty God 
for the blessings of civil and re¬ 
ligious liberty, do ordain and 
establish this Constitution. 


25 


26 


FRAMEWORK OF OUR GOVERNMENT 


II.—BILL OF RIGHTS 
United States North Dakota 

Amendments I.-X. Article I. 

III.—CONSTITUTION PROPER 
Articles I.-VII. Articles II.-XX. 

IV.—AMENDMENTS 

Amendments I.-XV. Amendments I.-XII. 

Questions 

1. How many parts are there in the United States Constitution? 

2. Does our State Constitution have the same parts? 

3. Name these parts. 

4. Which has the longer constitution, the State or the United 

States? *Why is this? 1 

5. Where is the Bill of Rights found in the Federal Constitution? 

In the State Constitution? 

6. *What is the Bill of Rights? 

7. How many amendments are there to the State Constitution? To 

the Federal Constitution? 

8. Quote both preambles. 

9. How many articles are there in the Constitution proper of North 

Dakota? Of the United States? 


Lesson 2 


II.—BILL OF RIGHTS 


United States * 


North Dakota 


Read Amendments I.-X. 
Copy the following numbers of 
the Amendments constituting 
the Federal Bill of Rights. 


Read Article I. 

Copy, in parallel columns, 
the numbers of the sections cor¬ 
responding to the same pro¬ 
visions in the Federal Bill of 
Rights; e. g. opposite Am. I. 
write Secs. 4, 9, 10. 


} Questions starred are optional only. They are not answered in the Con¬ 
stitution, but can be answered by reference to some good work on the Con¬ 
stitution. 


CONSTITUTIONS 


27 


United States 

North Dakoi 

Amendment 

I. 

Sections 4, 9, 10. 

Amendment 

II. 

— 

Amendment 

III. 

Sec.? 

Amendment 

IV. 

Sec.? 

Amendment 

V. 

Sec.? 

Amendment 

VI. 

Sec.? 

Amendment 

VII. 

— 

Amendment 

VIII. 

Sec.? 

Amendment 

IX. 

— 

Amendment 

X. 

— 


Questions 

1. What rights are mentioned in both constitutions? 

2. *Are any of these rights enumerated in Magna Charta of 1215? 

Which ones? In the Declaration of Independence? 

3. Name some rights in the North Dakota Constitution not found 

in the Federal Bill of Rights. 

4. Can these rights be taken away by the State legislature? (Sec. 

24). 

Lesson 3 

III.—CONSTITUTION PROPER 

United States North Dakota 

Copy titles of Articles I.-VII. Copy titles of Articles II.-XX. 

Questions 

1. What is the subject of Art. I of the Federal Constitution? 

2. What article in the State Constitution corresponds to this? 

3. What is the subject of Art. II of the Federal Constitution? 

4. What article in the State Constitution corresponds to this? 

5. What is the subject of Art. Ill of the Federal Constitution? 

6. What article of the State Constitution corresponds to this? 

7. What is the subject of Art. IV of the Federal Constitution? 

8. Is there any article in the State Constitution corresponding to 

this? Why? 

9. What is the subject of Art. V of the Federal Constitution? Of 

Art. VI? 


28 


FRAMEWORK OF OUR GOVERNMENT 


10. Are there corresponding articles in the State Constitution? 

11. What is the subject of Art. VII of the Federal Constitution? 

Is there any corresponding article in the State Constitution? 

12. *How many people are living under each constitution to-day? 

13. Name nine subjects in the State Constitution not found in the 

Federal Constitution. 

14. Can you account for this? 


Lesson 4 

III.—CONSTITUTION PROPER (Continued) 
LEGISLATIVE BRANCH 

United States 
Read Art. I., Sections I-IV. 


Copy and complete the following outline: 

1. House of Representatives. 

I. How composed? 

( Age? 

II. Eligibility \ Citizenship? 

[ Inhabitancy? 

III. Number of members? *Number at present time? 

IV. How* apportioned? (14th Am.) 

V. By whom elected? When? Vacancies, how filled? 

VI. Qualifications of Electors. 


VII. House Powers 


{ Concurrent? 
Exclusive? (See also 
Sec. VII. % 1.) 

Impeachment? 


Elective 

2. Senate. 

I. How composed? 

( Age? 

II. Eligibility •( Citizenship? 

[ Inhabitancy? 


J House officers? 

[ President of U. S.? 



CONSTITUTIONS 


29 


III. Term? By whom chosen? When chosen? 

IV. Vacancies, how filled? 

f Vice President U. S. 

V. Presiding Officer ] President pro tempore? 


[ Chief Justice? 
Legislative? 


VI. Senate Powers 


Elective 


Exclusive 



Judicial? 


Lesson 5 

III.—CONSTITUTION PROPER (Continued) 
LEGISLATIVE BRANCH 

United States 
Read Art. I., Section V.-VII. 

Provisions Common to Both Houses. 

I. Membership and disputed election returns? 

II. Ineligibility to certain Federal offices? 

III. Business quorum? 

IV. Parliamentary rules? 

V. Journal? 

VI. Expulsion of member? 

VII. Prohibition on Adjournment? Time? Place? 

VIII. Salary? 

IX. Privileges: From Arrest? Of Debate? 

Lesson 6 

III.—CONSTITUTION PROPER (Continued) 
LEGISLATIVE BRANCH 


North Dakota 
Read Article II., Secs. 25-40. 



30 


FRAMEWORK OF OUR GOVERNMENT 


Questions 

1. Where is the legislative power of North Dakota vested? Of the 

United States? 

2. Give the following facts about the North Dakota Senate: 

a. How composed. d. How chosen. 

b. Term. e. Senate powers. 

c. Eligibility. /. Impeachment, Art. XIV. 

g. Presiding officer. 

3. Give the following facts about the North Dakota House of 

Representatives: 

a. How composed. d. How chosen. 

b. Term. e. House powers. 

c. Eligibility. /. Impeachment, Art. XIV. 

g. Presiding officer. 

4. State the provisions common to both houses of the legislative 

assembly of North Dakota. 

a. Ineligibility. 

b. Bribery. 


Lesson 7 

III.—CONSTITUTION PROPER (Continued) 
LEGISLATIVE BRANCH 

North Dakota 
Read Art. II., Sections 41-59. 


State the provisions common to both houses of the legislative 


assembly of North Dakota. 

a. Term begins when? g. 

b. Vacancies, how filled. - 

c. Salary. h. 

d. Quorum. i. 

e. Disputed election returns. j. 

/. Open and secret sessions. k. 


5. What does it mean to 
power? 


redistrict ; 


Adjournment, time, and 
place. 

Session, date, and length. 
Enacting clause. 

Rules of proceedings. 
Appropriation bills, 
the State? Who has this 


CONSTITUTIONS 


31 


6. In what district do you live? Draw a map of it, and give 

names of its representatives in the last legislative assembly. 
(See Blue Book.) 

7. How are Senate committees chosen? 

Lesson 8 

III.—CONSTITUTION PROPER (Continued) 
LEGISLATIVE BRANCH 
United States North Dakota 

Read Art. I., Sections Read Art. II., Sections 60-70. 

VIII., IX., X. 

Questions 

1. Name ten powers of Congress. 

2. Name four prohibitions on Congress. 

3. Name four prohibitions on the States. 

4. Name five prohibitions on the legislative assembly in the 

North Dakota Constitution. 

5. May Congress levy a tariff on exports? Why not? 

6. May States levy a protective tariff? 

7. What are the financial powers of Congress? 

8. May the North Dakota legislature grant special charters to 

cities? Give a reason for your answer. 

9. Which has the more powers, Congress or the State legislature? 

10. On how many subjects are local and special laws of the State 

legislature forbidden? Name five of these prohibitions. 

11. How may a bill become a law? 

Lesson 9 

III.—CONSTITUTION PROPER (Continued) 
EXECUTIVE BRANCH 
United States North Dakota 

Read Art. II. and Am. XII. Read Art. III. 

Copy and complete the following outline, and answer the ques¬ 
tions below: 


32 FRAMEWORK OF OUR GOVERNMENT 

Outline, Executive (United States) 

1. In whom vested? 

2. Term? 

3. Qualifications (age? citizenship? inhabitancy?) 

4. How elected? (See Am. 12.) 

5. How removable? 

6. Salary? 

7. Powers: a. Military? 6. treaty making? c. pardoning? d. ap¬ 

pointing? e. legislative (message, veto, convene, Congress?) 

Questions 

1. What are the military powers of the governor of North Dakota? 

2. What are his pardoning powers? (See Am. 3.) 

3. *What are his appointing powers? 

4. Has the governor any legislative powers? 

5. What does the Federal Constitution say about the President’s 

cabinet? *Can you name the cabinet? 

6. Has the governor a cabinet? 

7. Name the other important executive officers of North Dakota 

besides the governor. (Sec. 83). 

8. Are they appointed or elected? *What effect does this have on 

the governor’s position? 

9 Are members of the President’s cabinet appointed or elected? 
*Does this have any effect on the President’s position? 

10. *Define impeachment. Who has sole power of impeachment? 

Power to try all cases of impeachment? (See Lesson 4.) 

11. For what may the President and Vice President be impeached? 

Lesson 10 

III.—CONSTITUTION PROPER (Continued) 
JUDICIAL BRANCH 

United States North Dakota 

Read Art. III. Read Art. IV., sections 85-102, 

Amendment X. 

Copy and complete the following outline of the Federal judiciary: 


CONSTITUTIONS 


33 


Outline 

1. Where vested. 

a. Supreme Court. 

b. Inferior courts. 

2. Judges. 

а. How appointed? 

б. Tenure of office? 

3. Jurisdiction. 

o. Original. Define and give extent of. 

6. Appellate. Define and give extent of. 

Questions 

1. Where is the judicial power of North Dakota vested? 

2. Composition of State Supreme Court. Number of judges; 

qualifications; term of office; how chosen. 

3. Jurisdiction of State Supreme Court. 

4. Why is no jury trial allowed in this court? 

Lesson 11 

III.—CONSTITUTION PROPER (Continued) 
JUDICIAL BRANCH 

North Dakota 
Read Art. IV., sections 103-120. 

1. Composition of District Court. Number of judges; qualifica¬ 

tions; term; how chosen. 

2. What is the jurisdiction of this court? 

3. County court: Number of judges; term; how chosen; juris¬ 

diction. 

4. Justices of Peace: Number of justices; how chosen; juris¬ 

diction. 

5. Police magistrate: Where chosen? How? Jurisdiction? 


Civics N. Dak.—3 


34 


FRAMEWORK OF OUR GOVERNMENT 


Lesson 12 

III.—CONSTITUTION PROPER (Continued) 

a. THE STATES AND TERRITORIES 

b. MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS 

c. RATIFICATION 

United States 
Read Arts. IV., VI., VII. 


Questions 

1. What credit is given in one State to the judicial proceedings of 

any other State? 

2. *Give one example of this rule. 

3. How are new States admitted to the Union? 

4. What powers has Congress over the Territories? 

5. May the Federal government send troops into a State to quell 

local disorders? *Has this ever been done? 

6. What is the supreme law of the land? 

7. May a Mohammedan or a Buddhist hold Federal office in the 

United States? Give a reason for your answer? 

8. What provision is made in the Constitution for its ratification? 

*When was it ratified by each State? *By what vote? 

Lesson 13 

III.—CONSTITUTION PROPER (Continued) 

FUTURE AMENDMENTS 
United States North Dakota 

Read Art. V. Read Art. XV. 

Copy the following table: 

Amendments to U. S. Constitution—Dates of: 


Ams. I.-X. Proposed by Congress 1789, 

Adopted 

1791. 

Am. XI. 

u 

1794, 

U 

1798. 

Am. XII. 

u 

1803, 

U 

1804. 

Am. XIII. 

“ 

1865, 

(C 

1865. 

Am. XIV. 

iC 

1866, 

u 

1868. 

Am. XV. 

u 

1869, 

u 

1870. 


CONSTITUTIONS 


35 


Questions 

1. How may the Constitution of North Dakota be amended? 

2. How many times has it been amended? 

3. How long does it take to amend the State Constitution? 

4. In what two ways may amendments be proposed to the Federal 

Constitution? 

5. In what way may the Federal Constitution be amended? 

6. How have all the amendments thus far been proposed? 

7. *What is the object in having the second method of proposing 

amendments? 

8. Give the date of adoption of each of the fifteen amendments 

to the Federal Constitution? 

9. *What led to the first ten amendments? The last three? The 

11th? The 12th? 


Lesson 14 

III.—CONSTITUTION PROPER (Continued) 

a. ELECTIVE FRANCHISES 

b. MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS 

North Dakota 
Read Arts. V., VI., and Am. 2. 

1. Copy and complete the following outlines, adding the numbers 
of sections referred to in the State Constitution: 

a. Elective Franchise. 

1. Qualifications for voting. 

a Age and sex. 

(a) School elections. 
h. Residence, 

c. Citizenship. 

(a) Citizen of United States. 

(b) Certain Indians. 

2. Time and date of general elections. 

b. Municipal Corporations 


36 


FRAMEWORK OF OUR GOVERNMENT 


Questions 

1. Under what conditions can foreigners vote in North Dakota? 

2. Who are citizens? (See 14th Am. U. S. Constitution.) 

3. At what election can women vote? 

4. What control has the State legislature over cities? 

5. In what ways may the State legislature restrict the right of 

suffrage? 


Lesson 15 

III.—CONSTITUTION PROPER (Continued) 

OTHER CORPORATIONS 
United States North Dakota 

Read Art. VII. 

Corporations (other than municipal). 

1. Corporations—how organized. 

2. Foreign corporations—how they do business in North Dakota. 

3. Limitation on issue of stock and bonds. 

4. Combinations. 

a. Railroads. 

b. Combinations to control price. 

Questions 

1. What control has the State legislature over North Dakota 

corporations? Over foreign corporations? Over railroads? 
*What is a foreign corporation? 

2. *Can North Dakota corporations “water their stock”? (Sec. 

138.) 

3. What combinations are illegal in North Dakota? 

Lesson 16 

III.—CONSTITUTION PROPER (Continued) 

a. EDUCATION 

b. SCHOOL AND PUBLIC LANDS 

United States North Dakota 

Read Arts. VIII., IX., sections 
153-158. 


CONSTITUTIONS 


37 


Questions 

1. Why should public schools be maintained? 

2. May part of the public money be used for sectarian schools? 

3. What are the four sources of our Permanent School Fund? 

Which of these four is the most important? (The grant of 
sections 16 and 36 makes a total of 2,250,000 acres.) 

4. Will future losses make this fund smaller? 

5. What are the sources of the State Tuition Fund? (Sec. 154.) 

6. *What did this fund amount to last year? How much did your 

school receive? 

7. May the State sell its coal lands? 

Lesson 17 

III.—CONSTITUTION PROPER (Continued) 

a. EDUCATION 

b. SCHOOL AND PUBLIC LANDS 

United States North Dakota 

Read Art. IX., XIX., sections 
159-165, and Ams. V., VI., 
VIII., IX., XI., XII. 

Questions 

1. Who has control of all school lands, and all moneys coming 

from the sale of these lands? How do they invest this money? 
(Sec. 162, Am. 8.) 

2. What is the minimum price of school lands? *How high has 

it sold? 

3. *How does the minimum price in our State compare with the 

price in older States? 

4. Who appraises the lands in each county? 

5. How is this land then sold? 

6. Does the State also rent land? On what terms? 

7. *Prepare a table showing (a) total land grants to common 

schools and to each State institution, (b) acres sold and (c) 
total price received, (c) average price per acre. (See last 
report of Land Commissioner, Bismarck, N. D.) 


38 


FRAMEWORK OF OUR GOVERNMENT 


8. Draw a map of North Dakota and locate thereon each State 
institution; also indicate the size of the land grant, if any, of 
each institution. Which have no land grant? Why? 

Lesson 18 

III.—CONSTITUTION PROPER (Continued) 

COUNTY AND TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION 

North Dakota 
Read Art. X. 

Questions 

1. What is the minimum size of a county in North Dakota? 

2. Who may change the boundaries of organized counties? 

3. What county officers are provided for in the Constitution? (See 

also section 150.) 

4. What county officers may not serve for more than four years 

in succession? Why is this? What State officer? 

Lesson 19 

III.—CONSTITUTION PROPER (Continued) 

a. REVENUE AND TAXATION 

b. PUBLIC DEBT AND PUBLIC WORKS 

North Dakota 
Read Arts. XI., XII., and Ams. 
IV. and VII. 

Questions 

1. What is the limit of State taxes (exclusive of interest on State 

debt)? 

2. What is said about uniformity of taxation? What does this 

mean? Is there any exception to the rule of uniformity? 
(Am. 7.) 

3. On what basis shall property be valued for taxation? 

4. How are railroads assessed? 


CONSTITUTIONS 


39 


5. What other corporations are assessed in the same way? 

6. What is the limit of the public debt of North Dakota? 

6. Who assesses property in your school district? 

8. *What is the North Dakota debt to-day? 

9. What is the debt limit for a county? A township? A city? A 

school district? What are the exceptions to this rule? 

10. May the State engage in any work of “internal improvement”? 


Lesson 20 


III.—CONSTITUTION PROPER (Continued) 

a. MILITIA 

b. IMPEACHMENT AND REMOVAL 
e. MISCELLANEOUS 

d. PROHIBITION 

North Dakota 
Read Arts. XIII., XIV., XVII., 
and XX. 

Questions 

1. What is the difference between the militia and the active militia 

(National Guard)? 

2. Who has the sole power of impeachment? Of trial of impeach¬ 

ment? 

3. What is said about child labor in the North Dakota Constitu¬ 

tion? 

4. May corporations use the blacklist in this State? What is a 

blacklist? 

5. May married women own property in this State? 

6. May liquors be manufactured, sold, or given away in this State? 

7. What other States are prohibition States? 


Lesson 21 


IV.—AMENDMENTS 


United States 


North Dakota 


Copy titles of Ams. I.-XV. 
Read Ams. XIII., XIV., XV. 


Copy titles of Ams. I.-XII. 
Read Am. I. 


40 FRAMEWORK OF OUR GOVERNMENT 

Questions 

1. Where does the word “slavery” occur in the Federal Constitu¬ 

tion? What is here said on that subject? 

2. Who are citizens of the United States? 

3. *Is a Chinaman, born and raised in the United States, a citizen? 

4. What are States forbidden to do by the 14th Amendment? Is 

this an important prohibition? Why? 

5. What is there in the 14th Amendment designed to deprive cer¬ 

tain southern whites (just after the civil war) of the right to 
vote? (Sec. 3.) 

6. What is there in the 14th Amendment which aimed to stimulate 

the southern States to allow negroes to vote? (Sec. 2.) 

7. Does Congress, or do the States, have the right to regulate 

the qualifications for voting? 

8. Does the 15th Amendment give the negro the right to vote? 

9. *In what ways may States “deny or abridge” the right to vote? 

In what 'ways have they done so? 

10. Can lotteries operate legally in North Dakota? Why? Give 
a reason for your answer? 


CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF 
AMERICA 


[Note —The Constitution was adopted September 17, 1787, by the 
unanimous consent of the States present in the constitutional con¬ 
vention, and was ratified by the conventions of the several States, 
as follows: By Delaware, December 7, 1787; Pennsylvania, Decem¬ 
ber 12, 1787; New Jersey, December 18, 1787; Georgia, January 2, 
1788; Connecticut, January 9, 1788; Massachusetts, February 6, 
1788; Maryland, April 28, 1788; South Carolina, May 23, 1788; 
New Hampshire, June 21, 1788; Virginia, June 26, 1788; New York, 
July 26, 1788; North Carolina, November 21, 1789; Rhode Island, 
May 29, 1790. 

The first ten of the amendments were proposed by Congress, 
September 25, 1789, and were finally ratified by the constitutional 
number of States, December 15, 1791. 

The other amendments w T ere proposed by Congress at different 
times, and, having been adopted by the constitutional number of 
States, went into effect as follows: the eleventh amendment, Janu¬ 
ary 8, 1798; the twelfth, September 25, 1804; the thirteenth, Decem¬ 
ber 18, 1865; the fourteenth, July 28, 1868; the fifteenth, March 30, 
1870.] 

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more 
perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, 
provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, 
and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, 
do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States 
of America. 


ARTICLE I—Legislative Department 

Section I. All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested 
in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a 
Senate and House of Representatives. 

Sec. II. 1. The House of Representatives shall be composed 
of members chosen every second year by the people of the sev¬ 
eral States, and the electors in each State shall have the qualifi¬ 
cations requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the 
State legislature. 


Preamble 


Congress 


Repre¬ 
senta¬ 
tives: 
when and 
by whom 
elected 


41 



42 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 


Qualifica¬ 
tions of 
members 


Census 
each ten 
years, to 
apportion 
representa¬ 
tives 


Vacancies 


Speaker 
Impeach¬ 
ment 
Senate: 
composi¬ 
tion and 
how chosen 

Not all 
chosen at 
same time 


Vacancies 


Qualifica¬ 
tions of 
senatpr 


2. No person shall be a representative who shall not have 
attained to the age of twenty-five years, and been seven years 
a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, 
be an inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen. 

3. Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among 
the several States which may be included within this Union, 
according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined 
by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those 
bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians 
not taxed, three fifths of all other persons. 1 The actual enu¬ 
meration shall be made within three years after the first meeting 
of the Congress of the United States, and within every subse¬ 
quent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law 
direct. The number of Representatives shall not exceed one 
for every thirty thousand, but each State shall have at least one 
Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the 
State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to choose three, Massa¬ 
chusetts eight, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations one, 
Connecticut five, New York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania 
eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina 
five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three. 

4. When vacancies happen in the representation from any 
State, the executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election 
to fill such vacancies. 

5. The House of Representatives shall choose their Speaker 
and other officers, and shall have the sole power of impeachment. 

Sec. III. 1. The Senate of the United States shall be com¬ 
posed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the legislature 
thereof for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. 

2. Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence 
of the first election, they shall be divided as equally as may be 
into three classes. The seats of the Senators of the first class 
shall be vacated at the expiration of the second year, of the 
second class at the expiration of the fourth year, and of the third 
class at the expiration of the sixth year, so that one third may 
be chosen every second year; and if vacancies happen by resig¬ 
nation, or otherwise, during the recess of the legislature of any 
State, the executive thereof may make temporary appointments 
until the next meeting of the legislature, which shall then fill such 
vacancies. 

3. No person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained 
to the age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the 
United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant 
of that State for which he shall be chosen. 

4. The Vice President of the United States shall be president 

1 Amended by the Fourteenth Amendment. 


LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT 


43 


of the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally 
divided. 

5. The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a 
president pro tempore, in the absence of the Vice President, or 
when he shall exercise the office of President of the United States. 

6. The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeach¬ 
ments. When sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath 
or affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried 
the chief justice shall preside; and no person shall be convicted 
without the concurrence of two thirds of the members present. 

7. Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further 
than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold and 
enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States; 
but the party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject 
to indictment, trial, judgment and punishment, according to law. 

Sec. IV. 1. The times, places, and manner of holding elections 
for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each 
State by the legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any 
time by law make or alter such regulations, except as to the places 
of choosing senators. 

2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and 
such meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless 
they shall by law appoint a different day. 

Sec. V. 1. Each house shall be the judge of the elections, 
returns and qualifications of its own members, and a majority 
of each shall constitute a quorum to do business; but a smaller 
number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized 
to compel the attendance of absent members, in such manner, 
and under such penalties as each house may provide. 

2. Each house may determine the rules of its proceedings, 
punish its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concur¬ 
rence of two thirds, expel a member. 

3. Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from 
time to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in 
their judgment require secrecy; and the yeas and nays of the 
members of either house on any question shall, at the desire of 
one fifth of those present, be entered on the journal. 

4. Neither house, during the session of Congress, shall, without 
the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor 
to any other place than that in which the two houses shall be 
sitting. 

Sec. VI. 1. The Senator and Representatives shall receive 
a compensation for their services, to be ascertained by law, and 
paid out of the treasury of the United States. They shall in 
all cases, except treason, felony and breach of the peace, be 
privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of 


President 
of the 
senate 

President 

pro 

tempore 

Trial of 
impeach¬ 
ments 


Punish¬ 
ment of 
impeached 
officials 


Both 

houses 

Election 

laws 


When 

Congress 

meets 

Election 

returns. 

Quorum 


Rules in 

each 

house 

The 

“journal" 


Adjourn¬ 

ment 


Compensa¬ 

tion 


Members 
privileged 
from arrest 


44 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 


One fed¬ 
eral office 
at a time 


Revenue 

bills 


President’s 

veto 

power 


Congress 
may pass 
bill over 
president’s 
veto 


Express 
powers OF 
CONGRESS 

Taxing 


Borrowing 

Commerce 


their respective houses, and in going to and returning from the 
same; and for any speech or debate in either house, they shall 
not be questioned in any other place. 

2. No Senator or Representative shall, during the time for 
which he was elected, be appointed to any civil office under the 
authority of the United States, which shall have been created, 
or the emoluments whereof shall have been increased during such 
time; and no person holding any office under the United States 
shall be a member of either house during his continuance in office. 

Sec. VII. 1. All bills for raising revenue shall originate in 
the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or 
concur with amendments as on other bills. 

2. Every bill which shall have passed the House of Repre¬ 
sentatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a law, be 
presented to the President of the United States; if he approve he 
shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his objections 
to that house in which it shall have originated, who shall enter 
the objections at large on their journal, and proceed to recon¬ 
sider it. If after such reconsideration two thirds of that house 
shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the 
objections, to the other house, by which it shall likewise be 
reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that house, it 
shall become a law. But in all such cases the votes of both 
houses shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the names of 
the persons voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the 
journal of each house respectively. If any bill shall not be re¬ 
turned by the President within ten days (Sundays excepted) after 
it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law, in 
like manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their 
adjournment prevent its return, in which case it shall not be a law. 

3. Every order, resolution, or vote to which the concurrence 
of the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary 
(except on a question of adjournment) shall be presented to 
the President of the United States; and before the same shall 
take effect, shall be approved by him, or being disapproved by 
him, shall be repassed by two thirds of the Senate and House 
of Representatives, according to the rules and limitations pre¬ 
scribed in the case of a bill. 

Sec. VIII. 1. The Congress shall have power to lay and collect 
taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide 
for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; 
but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout 
the United States; 

2. To borrow money on the credit of the United States; 

3. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the 
several States, and with the Indian tribes; 


LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT 


45 


4. To establish an uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform 
laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States; 

5. To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign 
coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures; 

6. To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the secu¬ 
rities and current coin of the United States; 

7. To establish post offices and post roads; 

8. To promote the progress of science and useful arts by 
securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive 
right to their respective writings and discoveries; 

9. To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court; 

10. To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on 
the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations; 

11. To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and 
make rules concerning captures on land and water; 

12. To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of 
money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years; 

13. To provide and maintain a navy; 

14. To make rules for the government and regulation of the 
land and naval forces; 

15. To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws 
of the Union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions; 

16. To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the 
militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed 
in the service of the United States, reserving to the States respec¬ 
tively the appointment of the officers, and the authority of train¬ 
ing the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress; 

17. To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over 
such district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession 
of particular States and the acceptance of Congress, become the 
seat of the government of the United States, and to exercise 
like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the 
legislature of the State in which the same shall be, for the erec¬ 
tion of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful 
buildings; and 

18. To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for 
carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other 
powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the 
United States, or in any department or officer thereof. 

Sec. IX. 1. The migration or importation of such persons 
as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, 
shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year one 
thousand eight hundred and eight, but a tax or duty may be 
imposed on such importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each 
person. 

2. The privileges of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be 


Natural¬ 
ization and 
bank¬ 
ruptcy 
Coin 
money 
Counter¬ 
feiting 

Post 
offices 
Patents 
and copy¬ 
rights 

Establish 

courts 

Piracy 


War 


Army 


Navy 


Militia 


Seat of 
govern¬ 
ment 


Implied 

powers 


Prohibi¬ 
tions ON 

CONGRES8 


Importa¬ 
tion of 
slaves un¬ 
til 1808 


46 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 


Habeas 

corpus 

Bill of 
attainder 
Direct 
taxes ac¬ 
cording 
to popu¬ 
lation 
No tax on 
exports 
No prefer¬ 
ence to 
state ports 


lawful re¬ 
ceipts and 
expendi¬ 
tures 


Titles not 
granted 


Powers 

DENIED 
TO THE 

States 


States not 
to levy 
tariff 


Other 
powers 
expressly 
denied the 
States 


The presi¬ 
dent: term 
of office 


suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the 
public safety may require it. 

3. No bill of attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed. 

4. No capitation, or other direct, tax shall be laid, unless in 
proportion to the census or enumeration hereinbefore directed 
to be taken. 

5. No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any 
State. 

6. No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce 
or revenue to the ports of one State over those of another; nor 
shall vessels bound to, or from, one State be obliged to enter, 
clear, or pay duties in another. 

7. No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in conse¬ 
quence of appropriations made by law; and a regular statement 
and account of the receipts and expenditures of all public money 
shall be published from time to time. 

8. No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States: 
and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them, 
shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, 
emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, 
prince, or foreign state. 

Sec. X. 1. No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or 
confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; 
emit bills of credit; make anything but gold and silver coin a 
tender in payment of debts; pass any bill of attainder, ex post 
facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts, or grant 
any title of nobility. 

2. No State shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay any 
imposts or duties on imports or exports, except what may be 
absolutely necessary for executing its inspection laws; and the 
net produce of all duties and imposts laid by any State on im¬ 
ports or exports, shall be for the use of the treasury of the United 
States; and all such laws shall be subject to the revision and 
control of the Congress. 

3. No State shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any 
duty of tonnage, keep troops, or ships of war in time of peace, 
enter into any agreement or compact with another State, or 
with a foreign power, or engage in war, unless actually invaded, 
or in such imminent danger as will not admit of delay. 

ARTICLE II—Executive Department 

Sec. I. 1. The executive power shall be vested in a President 
of the United States of America. He shall hold his office during 
the term of four years, and, together with the Vice President, 
chosen for the same term, be elected, as follows: 


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT 


47 


2. Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature 
thereof may direct, a number of Electors, equal to the whole 
number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may 
be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, 
or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United 
States, shall be appointed an Elector. 

[The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by 
ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhab¬ 
itant of the same State with themselves. And they shall make 
a list of all the persons voted for, and of the number of votes for 
each; which list they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed 
to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to 
the president of the Senate. The president of the Senate, shall, 
in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open 
all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted. The 
person having the greatest number of votes shall be the President, 
if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors 
appointed; and if there be more than one who have such majority, 
and have an equal number of votes, then the House of Repre¬ 
sentatives shall immediately choose by ballot one of them for 
President; and if no person have a majority, then from the five 
highest on the list the said house shall in like manner choose 
the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall 
be taken by States, the representation from each State having 
one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or 
members from two thirds of the States, and a majority of all 
the States shall be necessary to a choice. In every case, after 
the choice of the President, the person having the greatest 
number of votes of the Electors shall be the Vice President. 
But if there should remain two or more who have equal votes, 
the Senate shall choose from them by ballot the Vice Presi¬ 
dent.] 1 

3. The Congress may determine the time of choosing the 
Electors, and the day on which they shall give their votes; 
which day shall be the same throughout the United States. 

4. No person except a natural-born citizen, or a citizen of 
the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Consti¬ 
tution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall 
any person be eligible to that office w r ho shall not have attained 
to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident 
within the United States. 

5. In case of the removal of the President from office, or of 
his death, resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and 
duties of the said office, the same shall devolve on the Vice 
President, and the Congress may by law provide for the case 

1 This paragraph superseded by the Twelfth Amendment. 


How and 
by whom 
elected 


Election 

day 


Who may 
be presi¬ 
dent: qual¬ 
ifications 


Impeach¬ 
ment of 
president: 
who suc¬ 
ceeds 


48 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 


President’s 

salary 


Oath of 
office 


President 
is com¬ 
mander 
in chief 


Reprieves 
and par¬ 
dons 

Treaty¬ 

making 

power 


Appoint¬ 
ing power 


Vacancies 


President’s 
messages 
to congress 


of removal, death, resignation, or inability, both of the President 
and Vice President, declaring what officer shall then act as 
President, and such officer shall act accordingly, until the disa¬ 
bility be removed, or a President shall be elected. 

6. The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services 
a compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished 
during the period for which he shall have been elected, and he 
shall not receive within that period any other emolument from 
the United States, or any of them. 

7. Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take 
the following oath or affirmation:—“I do solemnly swear (or 
affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of 
the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, 
protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” 

Sec. II. 1. The President shall be commander in chief of the 
army and navy of the United States, and of the militia of the 
several States, when called into actual service of the United 
States; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal 
officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject 
relating to the duties of their respective offices, and he shall have 
power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the 
United States, except in cases of impeachment. 

2. He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent 
of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the 
Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with 
the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, 
other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, 
and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments 
are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be estab¬ 
lished by law; but the Congress may by law vest the appointment 
of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President 
alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments. 

3. The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that 
may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting com¬ 
missions which shall expire at the end of their next session. 

Sec. III. He shall from time to time give to the Congress 
information of the state of the Union, and recommend to their 
consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and 
expedient; he may, on extraordinary occasions, corivene both 
houses, or either of them, and in case of disagreement between 
them with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn 
them to such time as he shall think proper; he shall receive 
ambassadors and other public ministers; he shall take care that 
the laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the 
officers of the United States. 

Sec. IV. The President, Vice President, and all civil officers 


JUDICIARY DEPARTMENT 49 

of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeach¬ 
ment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high 
crimes and misdemeanors. 


ARTICLE III—Judiciary Department 

Sec. I. The judicial power of the United States shall be vested 
in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress 
may from time to time ordain and establish. The judges, both 
of the Supreme and inferior courts, shall hold their offices during 
good behavior, and shall, at stated times, receive for their serv¬ 
ices, a compensation which shall not be diminished during their 
continuance in office. 

Sec. II. 1. The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in 
law and equity, arising under this Constitution, the laws of the 
United States, and treaties- made, or which shall be made, under 
their authority;—to all cases affecting ambassadors, other public 
ministers and consuls;—to all cases of admiralty and maritime 
jurisdiction;—to controversies to which the United States shall 
be a party;—to controversies between two or more States;— 
between a State and citizens of another State; 1 —between citi¬ 
zens of different States,—between citizens of the same State 
claiming lands under grants of different States, and between a 
State, or the citizens thereof, and foreign States, citizens or 
subjects. 

2. In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers 
and consuls, and those in which a State shall be a party, the 
Supreme Court shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other 
cases before mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have appellate 
jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such exceptions, and 
under such regulations as the Congress shall make. 

3. The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, 
shall be by jury; and such trial shall be held in the State where 
the said crimes shall have been committed; but when not com¬ 
mitted within any State, the trial shall be at such place or places 
as the Congress may by law have directed. 

Sec. III. 1. Treason against the United States, shall consist 
only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, 
giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of 
treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same 
overt act, or on confession in open court. 

2. The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment 
of treason, but no attainder of treason shall work corruption 
of blood, or forfeiture except during the life of the person at¬ 
tainted. 

1 See the Eleventh Amendment. 

Civics N. Dak.—4 


Removal 

from 

office 


Supreme 
and in¬ 
ferior 
courts 

Term of 
office and 
salary 


Jurisdic¬ 
tion of 
U. S. 
courts 


J urisdic- 
tion of 
supreme 
court 


Jury trial 


Treason 

defined 


Punish¬ 

ment 


50 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 


Public acts 
of the sev¬ 
eral States 


All citizens 
equal 

Removal 
of crimi¬ 
nals 


Return of 
runaway 
slaves 


Admission 
of new 
States 


Govern¬ 
ment of 
territories 


Republi¬ 
can form 
of gov¬ 
ernment 
guaranteed 


How 
amend¬ 
ments to 
constitu¬ 
tion are 
proposed 
and 
adopted 


ARTICLE IV—The Nation and the States 

Sec. I. Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to 
the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other 
State. And the Congress may by general laws prescribe the 
manner in which such acts, records and proceedings shall be 
proved, and the effect thereof. 

Sec. II. 1. The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all 
privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States. 

2. A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other 
crime, who shall flee from justice, and be found in another State, 
shall on demand of the executive authority of the State from 
which he fled, be delivered up to be removed to the State having 
jurisdiction of the crime. 

3. No person held to service or labor in one State, under the 
laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any 
law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or 
labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom 
such service or labor may be due. 1 

Sec. III. 1. New States may be admitted by the Congress 
into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected 
within the jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be 
formed by the junction of two or more States, or parts of States, 
without the consent of the legislatures of the States concerned as 
well as of the Congress. 

2. The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all 
needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other 
property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this 
Constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of 
the United States, or of any particular State. 

Sec. IV. The United States shall guarantee to every State in 
this Union a republican form of government, and shall protect 
each of them against invasion; and on application of the legis¬ 
lature, or of the executive (when the legislature cannot be con¬ 
vened) against domestic violence. 

ARTICLE V—Future Amendments 

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem 
it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, 
on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the sev¬ 
eral States, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, 
which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, 
as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures 
of three fourths of the several States, or by conventions in three 
1 See the Thirteenth Amendment. 


AMENDMENTS 


51 


fourths thereQf, as the one or the other mode of ratification 
may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that no amendment 
which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred 
and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses 
in the ninth section of the first article; and that no State, with¬ 
out its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the 
Senate. 

ARTICLE VI—Miscellaneous 

1. All debts contracted and engagements entered into, before 
the adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the 
United States under this Constitution, as under the Confederation. 

2. This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which 
shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or 
which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, 
shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every 
State shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or 
laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding. 

3. The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and 
the members of the several State legislatures, and all executive 
and judicial officers, both of the United States, and of the several 
States, shall be bound by oath or affirmation to support this 
Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a 
qualification to any office or public trust under the United States. 

ARTICLE VII—Ratification 

The ratification of the conventions of nine States shall be 
sufficient for the establishment of this Constitution between the 
States so ratifying the same. 

Done in Convention by the unanimous consent of the States 
present the seventeenth day of September in the year of our 
Lord one thousand* seven hundred and eighty-seven, and of 
the independence of the United States of America the twelfth. 
In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names, 
Go: Washington— 

Presidt and Deputy from Virginia 


AMENDMENTS 

Articles in addition to, and amendment of, the Constitution of 
the United States of America, proposed by Congress, and 
ratified by the legislatures of the several States pursuant to 
the fifth article of the original Constitution. 


U. S. as¬ 
sumes 
debts of 
confedera¬ 
tion 

Supreme 
law of 
land 


No re¬ 
ligious test 
required 


Ratifica¬ 

tion 


Bill of 

BIGHTS 

Amend¬ 
ments I-X 


52 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 


Religious 
liberty and 
free speech 


Carrying 

arms 


Quartering 
of troops 


Unreason¬ 

able 

searches 

forbidden 


Jury trial 
for capital 
offenses 


Life, lib¬ 
erty and 
property 
safe¬ 
guarded 


Criminal 
prosecu¬ 
tions: 
speedy, 
public, 
jury trial 


ARTICLE I 

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of 
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging 
the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people 
peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a 
redress of grievances. 


ARTICLE II 

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a 
free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall 
not be infringed. 

ARTICLE III 

No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, 
without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a 
manner to be prescribed by law. 

ARTICLE IV 

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, 
papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, 
shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon prob¬ 
able cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly 
describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things 
to be seized. 

ARTICLE V 

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise 
infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a 
grand jury; except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, 
or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public 
danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to 
be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in 
any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived 
of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor 
shall private property be taken for public use without just 
compensation. 

ARTICLE VI 

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right 
to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State 
and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which 
district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be 
informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be con- 


AMENDMENTS 


53 


fronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory- 
process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the 
assistance of counsel for his defense. 


ARTICLE VII 

In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall Trial by 
exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be pre- ^ ury 
served, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise re¬ 
examined in any court of the United States, than according to 
the rules of the common law. 

ARTICLE VIII 

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, Bail and 
nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. fines 

ARTICLE IX 

The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall 
not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the 
people. 

ARTICLE X 

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Consti- Powers re- 
tution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the testates 
States respectively, or to the people. 

ARTICLE XI 

The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed Judicial 
to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted }j£^ed 
against one of the United States by citizens of another State, or 
by citizens or subjects of any foreign State. 

ARTICLE XII 

The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote 
by ballot for President and Vice President, one of w T hom, at 
least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same State with them¬ 
selves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as 
President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice 
President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted 
for as President and of all persons voted for as Vice President, 
and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign 
and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government 


Mode of 

election of 

President 

and Vice 

President 

provided 

for 


Unex¬ 
pressed 
rights of 
people 


54 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 


Majority 
of electoral 
(not popu¬ 
lar) vote 
necessary 


When the 
House of 
Represent¬ 
atives 
elects 
President 


Slavery 

abolished 

Negro a 
free man 


Who are 
citizens? 

Negro a 
citizen 

State 

powers 

restricted 


of the United States, directed to the president of the Senate;— 
The president of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate 
and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the 
votes shall then be counted;—The person having the greatest 
number of votes for President shall be the President, if such 
number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; 
and if no person have such majority, then from the persons 
having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of 
those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall 
choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing 
the President, the votes shall be taken by States, the representa¬ 
tion from each State having one vote; a quorum for this purpose 
shall consist of a member or members from two thirds of the 
States, and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a 
choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose 
a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon 
them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the 
Vice President shall act as President, as in case of the death or 
other constitutional disability of the President. The person 
having the greatest number of votes as.Vice President shall be 
the Vice President, if such number be a majority of the whole 
number of Electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, 
then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall 
choose the Vice President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist 
of two thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority 
of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no 
person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall 
be eligible to that of Vice President of the United States. 

ARTICLE XIII 

Sec. I. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as 
a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly 
convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place 
subject to their jurisdiction. 

Sec. II. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by 
appropriate legislation. 

ARTICLE XIV 

Sec. I. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, 
and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United 
States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall 
make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or 
immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State 
deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due 


AMENDMENTS 55 

process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction 
the equal protection of the laws. 

Sec. II. Representatives shall be apportioned among the sev¬ 
eral States according to their respective numbers, counting the 
whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not 
taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice 
of Electors for President and Vice President of the United States, 
Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers 
of a State, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied 
to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one 
years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way 
abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, 
the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the pro¬ 
portion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to 
the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in 
such State. 

Sec. III. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in 
Congress, or Elector of President and Vice President, or hold any 
office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any 
State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Con¬ 
gress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of 
any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any 
State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall 
have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or 
given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress 
may by a vote of two thirds of each house, remove such disability. 

Sec. IV. The validity of the public debt of the United States, 
authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of 
pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection 
or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United 
States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation 
incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United 
States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; 
but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal 
and void. 

Sec. V. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appro¬ 
priate legislation, the provisions of this article. 

ARTICLE XV 

Sec I. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall 
not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State 
on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. 

Sec. II. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article 
by appropriate legislation. 


Basis of 
represen¬ 
tation in 
congress: 
all male 
citizens 


Political 

disability 


What 
debts are 
valid 


Negro a 
voter 


56 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 


Proposed 

Income 

Tax 

Amend¬ 

ment 


Note. —The following joint resolution was proposed at the 
first session of the sixty-first Congress. It was passed by the 
Senate July 5, 1909, by a unanimous vote, and by the House of 
Representatives July 12, by a vote of 317 to 14, and it received 
the approval of the President. 

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled (two thirds of 
each House concurring therein), That the following article is 
proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United 
States, which, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths 
of the several States, shall be valid to all intents and purposes as 
a part of the Constitution: 

“Article XVI. The Congress shall have power to lay and 
collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without 
apportionment, among the several States, and without regard to 
any census or enumeration.” 

By the latter part of 1911 the legislatures of most of the States 
had taken action as provided by Article V of the Constitution, 
but the requisite number of ratifications (three fourths of the 
whole number of States) had not yet been secured. 


CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF NORTH 
DAKOTA 


[Adopted Oct. 1, 1889; yeas, 27,441; nays, 8,107.] 

We, the people of North Dakota, grateful to Almighty God 

for the blessings of civil and religious liberty, do ordain and 

establish this constitution. 

ARTICLE I—Declaration of Rights 

Section 1. All men are by nature equally free and independent 
and have certain inalienable rights, among which are those of 
enjoying and defending life and liberty, acquiring, possessing 
and protecting property and reputation; and pursuing and obtain¬ 
ing safety and happiness. 

Sec. 2. All political power is inherent in the people. Gov¬ 
ernment is instituted for the protection, security and benefit of 
the people, and they have a right to alter or reform the same 
whenever the public good may require. 

Sec. 3. The state of North Dakota is an inseparable part of 
the American union and the Constitution of the United States 
is the supreme law of the land. 

Sec. 4. The free exercise and enjoyment of religious pro¬ 
fession and worship, without discrimination or preference, shall 
be forever guaranteed in this state, and no person shall be 
rendered incompetent to be a witness or juror on account of 
his opinion on matters of religious belief; but the liberty of 
conscience hereby secured shall not be so construed as to excuse 
acts of licentiousness, or justify practices inconsistent with the 
peace or safety of this state. 

Sec. 5. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not 
be suspended unless, when in case of rebellion or invasion, the 
public safety may require. 

Sec. 6. All persons shall be bailable by sufficient sureties, 
unless for capital offenses, when the proof is evident or the 

57 


Preamble 


Bill of 
rights 

Inalien¬ 
able rights 


Aim of 
govern¬ 
ment 


Supreme 

law 


Religious 

liberty 


Habeas 

corpus 



58 


CONSTITUTION OF NORTH DAKOTA 


No exces¬ 
sive bail or 
fines 


Trial by 
jury 


Further 
rights of 
accused 


Freedom 
of speech 


Public 

meetings 


Operation 
of laws 

No stand¬ 
ing army 


Rights of 
accused in 
criminal 
prosecu¬ 
tions 


Private 
property 
cannot be 
confiscated 


presumption great. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor 
excessive fines imposed, nor shall cruel or unusual punishments 
be inflicted. Witnesses shall not be unreasonably detained, nor 
be confined in any room where criminals are actually imprisoned. 

Sec. 7. The right of trial by jury shall be secured to all, and 
remain inviolate; but a jury in civil cases, in courts not of record, 
may consist of less than twelve men, as may be prescribed by law. 

Sec. 8. Until otherwise provided by law, no person shall, for 
a felony, be proceeded against criminally, otherwise than by 
indictment, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or 
in the militia when in actual service in time of war or public 
danger. In all other cases offenses shall be prosecuted criminally 
by indictment or information. The legislative assembly may 
change, regulate or abolish the grand jury system. 

Sec. 9. Every man may freely write, speak and publish his 
opinions on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of that 
privilege. In all civil and criminal trials for libel the truth may 
be given in evidence, and shall be a sufficient defense when the 
matter is published with good motives and for justifiable ends; 
and the jury shall have the same power of giving a general ver¬ 
dict as in other cases; and in all indictments or informations for 
libels the jury shall have the right to determine the law and the 
facts under the direction of the court, as in other cases. 

Sec. 10. The citizens have a right, in a peaceable manner, to 
assemble together for the common good, and to apply to those 
invested with the powers of government for the redress of griev¬ 
ances, or for other proper purposes, by petition, address or remon¬ 
strance. 

Sec. 11. All laws of a general nature shall have a uniform 
operation. 

Sec. 12. The military shall be subordinate to the civil power. 
No standing army shall be maintained by this State in time of 
peace, and no soldiers shall, in time of peace, be quartered in 
any house without the consent of the owner; nor in time of 
war, except in the manner prescribed by law. 

Sec. 13. In criminal prosecutions in any court whatever, 
the party accused shall have the right to a speedy and public 
trial; to have the process of the court to compel the attendance 
of witnesses in his behalf; and to appear and defend in person 
and with counsel. No person shall be twice put in jeopardy for 
the same offense, nor be compelled in any criminal case to be 
a witness against himself, nor be deprived of fife, liberty or prop¬ 
erty without due process of law. 

Sec. 14. Private property shall not be taken or damaged for 
public use without just compensation having been first made to, 
or paid into court for the owner and no right of way shall be 


DECLARATION OF RIGHTS 


59 


appropriated to the use of any corporation, other than municipal, 
until full compensation therefor be first made in money or ascer¬ 
tained and paid into court for the owner, irrespective of any 
benefit from any improvement proposed by such corporation, 
which compensation shall be ascertained by a jury, unless a 
jury be waived. 

Sec. 15. No person shall be imprisoned for debt unless upon 
refusal to deliver up his estate for the benefit of his creditors, 
in such manner as shall be prescribed by law; or in case of tort; 
or where there is strong presumption of fraud. 

Sec. 16. No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impair¬ 
ing the obligations of contracts shall ever be passed. 

Sec. 17. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, unless for 
the punishment of crime, shall ever be tolerated in this State. 

Sec. 18. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, 
houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and 
seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrant shall issue but 
upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, partic¬ 
ularly describing the place to be searched and the persons and 
things to be seized. 

Sec. 19. Treason against the State shall consist only in levy¬ 
ing war against it, adhering to its enemies or giving them aid 
and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless 
on the evidence of two witnesses to the same overt act, or con¬ 
fession in open court. 

Sec. 20. No special privileges or immunities shall ever be 
granted which may not be altered, revoked or repealed by the 
legislative assembly; nor shall any citizen or class of citizens 
be granted privileges or immunities which upon the same terms 
shall not be granted to all citizens. 

Sec. 21. The provisions of this Constitution are mandatory 
and prohibitory unless, by express words, they are declared to 
be otherwise. 

Sec. 22. All courts shall be open and every man for any 
injury done him in his lands,-goods, person or reputation shall 
have remedy by due process of law, and right and justice admin¬ 
istered without sale, denial or delay. Suits may be brought 
against the State in such manner, in such courts and in such 
cases as the legislative assembly may, by law, direct. 

Sec. 23. Every citizen of this State shall be free to obtain 
employment wherever possible, and any person, corporation, or 
agent thereof, maliciously interfering or hindering in any way, 
any citizen from obtaining or enjoying employment already 
obtained, from any other corporation or person, shall be deemed 
guilty of a misdemeanor. 

Sec. 24. To guard against transgressions of the high powers 


No im¬ 
prison¬ 
ment for 
debt 


Ex post 
facto laws 
forbidden 
Slavery- 
forbidden 

Rights 

against 

searches 


Treason 

defined 


Granting 
of special 
privileges 


Constitu¬ 
tion in 
force 


Justice 

adminis¬ 

tered 


Freedom 
of em¬ 
ployment 


60 


CONSTITUTION OF NORTH DAKOTA 


Two legis¬ 
lative 
bodies 
Number of 
senators 

Term of 
office 

Qualifica¬ 
tions of 
senator 


Apportion¬ 
ment of 
senators 


One half of 
senators 
elected 
biennially 


President 
of senate 


Number of 
members 
in house of 
represent¬ 
atives 
Term of 
office 


which we have delegated, we declare that everything in this 
article is excepted out of the general powers of government and 
shall forever remain inviolate. 

ARTICLE II—Legislative Department 

Sec. 25. The legislative power shall be vested in a senate 
and house of representatives. 

Sec. 26. The senate shall be composed of not less than thirty 
nor more than fifty members. 

Sec. 27. Senators shall be elected for the term of four years, 
except as hereinafter provided. 

Sec. 28. No person shall be a senator who is not a qualified 
elector in the district in which he may be chosen, and who shall 
not have attained the age of twenty-five years, and have been a 
resident of the state or territory for two years next preceding 
his election. 

Sec. 29. The legislative assembly shall fix the number of sena¬ 
tors, and divide the state into as many senatorial districts as there 
are senators, which districts, as nearly as may be, shall be equal to 
each other in the number of inhabitants entitled to representa¬ 
tion. Each district shall be entitled to one senator and no more, 
and shall be composed of compact and contiguous territory; 
and no portion of any county shall be attached to any other 
county, or part thereof, so as to form a district. The districts 
as thus ascertained and determined shall continue until changed 
by law. 

Sec. 30. The senatorial districts shall be numbered consecu¬ 
tively from one upwards, according to the number of districts 
prescribed, and the senators shall be divided into two classes. 
Those elected in the districts designated by even numbers shall 
constitute one class, and those elected in districts designated by 
odd numbers shall constitute the other class. The senators in 
one class elected in the year 1890 shall hold their office for two 
years, those of the other class shall hold their office four years, 
and the determination of the two classes shall be by lot, so that 
one half of the senators, as nearly as practicable, may be elected 
biennially. 

Sec. 31. The senate at the beginning and close of each regu¬ 
lar session, and at each other times as may be necessary, shall 
elect one of its members president pro tempore, who may take 
the place of the lieutenant governor under rules prescribed by law. 

Sec. 32. The house of representatives shall be composed of not 
less than sixty nor more than one hundred and forty members. 

Sec. 33. Representatives shall be elected for the term of two 
years. 


LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT 


61 


Sec. 34. No person shall be a representative who is not a 
qualified elector in the district from which he may be chosen, and 
who shall not have attained the age of twenty-one years, and have 
been a resident of the state or territory for two years next pre¬ 
ceding his election. 

Sec. 35. The members of the house of representatives shall 
be apportioned to and elected at large from each senatorial dis¬ 
trict. The legislative assembly shall, in the year 1895, and every 
tenth year, cause an enumeration to be made of all the inhabit¬ 
ants of this state, and shall at its first regular session after each 
such enumeration, and also after each federal census, proceed to 
fix by law the number of senators which shall constitute the sen¬ 
ate of North Dakota, and the number of representatives which 
shall constitute the house of representatives of North Dakota, 
within the limits prescribed by this constitution, and at the same 
session shall proceed to reapportion the state into senatorial dis¬ 
tricts, as prescribed by this constitution, and to fix the number of 
members of the house of representatives to be elected from the 
several senatorial districts; provided, that the legislative as¬ 
sembly may, at any regular session, redistrict the state into sena¬ 
torial districts and apportion the senators and representatives 
respectively. 

Sec. 36. The house of representatives shall elect one of its 
members as speaker. 

Sec. 37. No judge or clerk of any court, secretary of state, 
attorney general, register of deeds, sheriff or person holding any 
office of profit under this state, except in the militia, or the office 
of attorney at law, notary public or justice of the peace, and no 
person holding any office of profit or honor under any foreign 
government, or under the government of the United States, 
except postmasters whose annual compensation does not exceed 
the sum of $300, shall hold any office in either branch of the legis¬ 
lative assembly or become a member thereof. 

Sec. 38. No member of the legislative assembly expelled for 
corruption, and no person convicted of bribery, perjury or other 
infamous crime, shall be eligible to the legislative assembly, or 
to any office in either branch thereof. 

Sec. 39. No member of the legislative assembly shall, during 
the term for which he was elected, be appointed or elected to 
any civil office in this state, which shall have been created, or 
the emoluments of which shall have been increased, during the 
term for which he was elected; nor shall any member receive any 
civil appointment from the governor, or governor and senate, dur¬ 
ing the term for which he shall have been elected. 

Sec. 40. If any person elected to either house of the legisla¬ 
tive assembly shall offer or promise to give his vote or influence 


Qualifi¬ 
cations of 
members 


Appor¬ 
tionment 
of repre¬ 
sentatives 


Census re¬ 
quired. 


Election of 
speaker 

Public offi¬ 
cials not 
eligible 


Restric¬ 
tion of 
eligibility 


Increase of 
salaries 
and pro¬ 
motions 


Bribery 


62 


CONSTITUTION OF NORTH DAKOTA 


Repre¬ 
sentatives 
expelled 
for bribery 


When term 
begins 


Privileged 
from, arrest 


Restric¬ 
tion on 
voting in. 
house 


Vacancies 

filled 


Compensa¬ 
tion of 
members 


Quorum 


in favor of, or against, any measure or proposition pending or 
proposed to be introduced into the legislative assembly, in con¬ 
sideration, or upon conditions, that any other person elected to 
the same legislative assembly will give, or will promise or assent 
to give, his vote or influence in favor of or against any other 
measure or proposition pending or proposed to be introduced into 
such legislative assembly, the person making such offer or prom¬ 
ise shall be deemed guilty of solicitation of bribery. If any 
member of the legislative assembly shall give his vote or influence 
for or against any measure or proposition, pending or proposed to 
be introduced into such legislative assembly, or offer, promise 
or assent to do upon condition that any other member will give, 
promise or assent to give his vote or influence in favor of or 
against any other such measure or proposition pending or pro¬ 
posed to be introduced into such legislative assembly, or in 
consideration that any other member hath given his vote or 
influence for or against any other measure or proposition in such 
legislative assembly, he shall be deemed guilty of bribery. And 
any person, member of the legislative assembly or person elected 
thereto, who shall be guilty of either such offenses, shall be 
expelled, and shall not thereafter be eligible to the legislative 
assembly, and on the conviction thereof, in the civil courts, 
shall be liable to such further penalty as may be prescribed by law. 

Sec. 41. The term of service of the members of the legis¬ 
lative assembly shall begin on the first Tuesday in January, 
next after their election. 

Sec. 42. The members of the legislative assembly shall in 
all cases except treason, felony and breach of the peace, be priv¬ 
ileged from arrest during their attendance at the sessions of 
their respective houses, and in going to or returning from the 
same. For words used in any speech or debate in either house, 
they shall not be questioned in any other place. 

Sec. 43. Any member who has a personal or private interest 
in any measure or bill proposed or pending before the legisla¬ 
tive assembly, shall disclose the fact to the house of which he 
is a member, and shall not vote thereon without the consent of 
the house. 

Sec. 44. The governor shall issue writs of election to fill 
such vacancies as may occur in either house of the legislative 
assembly. 

Sec. 45. Each member of the legislative assembly shall receive 
as a compensation for his services for each session, five dollars 
per day, and ten cents for every mile of necessary travel in 
going to and returning from the place of the meeting of the legis¬ 
lative assembly on the most usual route. 

Sec. 46. A majority of the members of each house shall 


LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT 


63 


constitute a quorum, but a smaller number may adjourn from 
day to day, and may compel the attendance of absent members 
in such a manner and under such a penalty as may be prescribed 
by law. 

Sec. 47. Each house shall be the judge of the election returns 
and the qualifications of its own members. 

Sec. 48. Each house shall have the power to determine the 
rules of proceeding, and punish its members or other persons 
for contempt or disorderly behavior in its presence; to protect 
its members against violence or ofers cf bribes or private solici¬ 
tation, and with the concurrence of two thirds, to expel a member; 
and shall have all other powers necessary and usual in the legis¬ 
lative assembly of a free state. But no imprisonment by either 
house shall continue beyond thirty days. Punishment for con¬ 
tempt or disorderly behavior shall not bar a criminal prosecution 
for the same offense. 

Sec. 49. Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, 
and the yeas and nays on any question shall be taken and entered 
on the journal at the request of one sixth of those present. 

Sec. 50. The sessions of each house and of the committee 
of the whole shall be open unless the business is such as ought 
to be kept secret. 

Sec. 51. Neither house shall, without the consent of the other, 
adjourn for more than three days nor to any other place than 
that in which the two houses shall be sitting, except in case of 
epidemic, pestilence or other great danger. 

Sec. 52. The senate and house of representatives jointly shall 
be designated as the legislative assembly of the State of North 
Dakota. 

Sec. 53. The legislative assembly shall meet at the seat of 
government at 12 o’clock noon on the first Tuesday after the 
first Monday in January, in the year next following the election 
of the members thereof. 

Sec. 54. In all elections to be made by the legislative assembly 
or either house thereof, the members shall vote viva voce, and 
their votes shall be entered in the journal. 

Sec. 55. The sessions of the legislative assembly shall be 
biennial, except as otherwise provided in this Constitution. 

Sec. 56. No regular session of the legislative assembly shall 
exceed sixty days, except in case of impeachment, but the first 
session of the legislative assembly may continue for a period 
of one hundred and twenty days. 

Sec. 57. Any bill may originate in either house of the legis¬ 
lative assembly, and a bill passed by one house may be amended 
by the other. 

Sec. 58. No law shall be passed, except by a bill adopted by 


Election 

returns 

Rules of 
the house 


Journal of 
proceed¬ 
ings 

Sessions 

public 


Adjourn¬ 

ment 


Legisla¬ 
tive as¬ 
sembly 

First 

meeting of 
assembly 


Viva voce 
vote 


Biennial 

sessions 

Duration 
of session 


Origin and 
amend¬ 
ment of 
bills 


64 


CONSTITUTION OF NORTH DAKOTA 


Bill must 
pass both 
houses 


Enacting 

clause 


Restriction 
on revenue 
bills 


Nature of 
bill 


Nature of 
revenue 
bills 


Readings 
of bill 


Amend¬ 

ments 


Majority 
vote nec¬ 
essary 


Presiding 
officer 
signs bills 


New law 
effective 
July 1 


both houses, and no bill shall be altered and amended on its 
passage through either house as to change its original pur¬ 
pose. 

Sec. 59. The enacting clause of every law shall be as follows: 
“ Be it enacted by the Legislative Assembly of the State of North 
Dakota.” 

Sec. 60. No bill for the appropriation of money, except for 
the expenses of the government, shall be introduced after the 
fortieth day of the session, except by unanimous consent of the 
house in which it is sought to be introduced. 

Sec. 61. No bill shall embrace more than one subject, which 
shall be expressed in its title, but a bill which violates this pro¬ 
vision shall be invalidated thereby only as to so much thereof 
as shall not be so expressed. 

Sec. 62. The general appropriation bill shall embrace nothing 
but appropriations for the expenses of the executive, legislative 
and judicial departments of the State, interest on the public 
debt and for public schools. All other appropriations shall be 
made by separate bills, each embracing but one subject. 

Sec. 63. Every bill shall be read three several times, but 
the first and second readings, and those only, may be upon the 
same day; and the second reading may be by title of the bill 
unless a reading at length be demanded. The first and third 
readings shall be at length. No legislative day shall be shorter 
than the natural day. 

Sec. 64. No bill shall be revised or amended, nor the pro¬ 
visions thereof extended or incorporated in any other bill by 
reference to its title only, but so much thereof as is revised, 
amended or extended or so incorporated shall be re-enacted 
and published at length. 

Sec. 65. No bill shall become a law except by a vote of a 
majority of all the members-elect in each house, nor unless, on 
its final passage, the vote be taken by yeas and nays, and the 
names of those voting be entered on the journal. 

Seo. 66. The presiding officer of each house shall, in the 
presence of the house over which he presides, sign all bills and 
joint resolutions passed by the legislative assembly; immediately 
before such signing their title shall be publicly read and the fact 
of signing shall be at once entered on the journal. 

Sec. 67. No act of the legislative assembly shall take effect 
until July 1, after the close of the session, unless in case of emer¬ 
gency (which shall be expressed in the preamble or body of the 
act) the legislative assembly shall, by a vote of two thirds of 
all the members present in each house, otherwise direct. 

Sec. 68. The legislative assembly shall pass all laws necessary 
to carry into effect the provisions of this Constitution. 


LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT 


65 


Sec. 69. The legislative assembly shall not pass local or special 
laws in any of the following enumerated cases, that is to say: 

1. For granting divorces. 

2. Laying out, opening, altering or working roads or highways, 
vacating roads, town plats, streets, alleys or public grounds. 

3. Locating or changing county seats. 

4. Regulating county or township affairs. 

5. Regulating the practice of courts of justice. 

6. Regulating the jurisdiction and duties of justices of the 
peace, police magistrates or constables. 

7. Changing the rules of evidence in any trial or inquiry. 

8. Providing for change of venue in civil or criminal cases. 

9. Declaring any person of age. 

10. For limitation of civil actions, or giving effect to informal 
or invalid deeds. 

11. Summoning or impaneling grand or petit juries. 

12. Providing for the management of common schools. 

13. Regulating the rate of interest on money. 

14. The opening or conducting of any election or designating 
the place of voting. 

15. The sale or mortgage of real estate belonging to minors 
or others under disability. 

16. Chartering or licensing ferries, toll bridges or toll roads. 

17. Remitting fines, penalties or forfeitures. 

18. Creating, increasing or decreasing fees, percentages or 
allowances of public officers. 

19. Changing the law of descent. 

20. Granting to any corporation, association or individual the 
right to lay down railroads tracks or any special or exclusive 
privilege, immunity or franchise whatever. 

21. For the punishment of crimes. 

22. Changing the names of persons or places. 

23. For the assessment or collection of taxes. 

24. Affecting estates of deceased persons, minors or others 
under legal disabilities. 

25. Extending the time for the collection of taxes. 

26. Refunding money into the state treasury. 

27. Relinquishing or extinguishing in whole or in part the 
indebtedness, liability or obligation of any corporation or person 
to this State or to any municipal corporation therein. 

28. Legalizing except as against the State, the unauthorized 
or invalid act of any officer. 

29. Exempting property from taxation. 

30. Restoring to citizenship persons convicted of infamous 
crimes. 

31. Authorizing the creation, extension or impairing of liens. 

Civics N. Dak.—5 


Special 
and local 
laws 

which leg¬ 
islative 
assembly 
cannot 
pass 


66 


CONSTITUTION OF NORTH DAKOTA 


Repeal of 
special acts 
Laws must 
be general 


Governor’s 
term two 
years 


Lieutenant 
governor: 
term of 
office 


Eligibility 
and quali¬ 
fications 
for gov¬ 
ernor and 
lieutenant 
governor 


Elected 
by the 
people 


If vote is 
tie, assem¬ 
bly elects 


32. Creating offices, or prescribing the powers or duties of 
officers in counties, cities, township, election or school districts, 
or authorizing the adoption or legitimation of children. 

33. Incorporation of cities, towns or villages, or changing 
or amending the charter of any town, city or village. 

34. Providing for the election of members of the board of 
supervisors in townships, incorporated towns or cities. 

35. The protection of game or fish. 

Sec. 70. In all other cases where a general law can be made 
applicable, no special law shall be enacted; nor shall the legis¬ 
lative assembly indirectly enact such special or local law by the 
partial repeal of a general law, but laws repealing local or special 
acts may be passed. 

ARTICLE III—Executive Department 

Sec. 71. The executive power shall be vested in a governor, 
who shall reside at the seat of government and shall hold his 
office for the term of two years and until his successor is elected 
and duly qualified. 

Sec. 72. A lieutenant governor shall be elected at the same 
time and for the same term as the governor. In case of the death 
impeachment, resignation, failure to qualify, absence from the 
State, removal from office, or the disability of the governor, the 
powers and duties of the office, for the residue of the term, or 
until he shall be acquitted or the disability removed, shall de¬ 
volve upon the lieutenant governor. 

Sec. 73. No person shall be eligible to the office of governor 
or lieutenant governor unless he be a citizen of the United States, 
and a qualified elector of the State, who shall have attained the 
age of thirty years, and who shall have resided five years next 
preceding the election within the State or territory, nor shall he 
be eligible to any other office during the term for which he s^iall 
have been elected. 

Sec. 74. The governor and lieutenant governor shall be 
elected by the qualified electors of the State at the time and 
places of choosing members of the legislative assembly. The 
persons having the highest number of votes for governor and 
lieutenant governor respectively shall be declared elected, but if 
two or more shall have an equal and highest number of votes for 
governor or lieutenant governor, the two houses of the legisla¬ 
tive assembly at its next regular session shall forthwith, by joint 
ballot, choose one of such persons for said office. The returns of 
the election for governor and lieutenant governor shall be made 
in such manner as shall be prescribed by law. 

Sec. 75. The governor shall be commander in chief of the 


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT 


67 


military and naval forces of the State, except when they shall be 
called into the service of the United States, and may call out the 
same to execute the laws, suppress insurrection and repel inva¬ 
sion. He shall have power to convene the legislative assembly 
on extraordinary occasions. He shall at the commencement of 
each session communicate to the legislative assembly by message, 
information of the condition of the State, and recommend such 
measures as he shall deem expedient. He shall transact all neces¬ 
sary business with the officers of the government, civil and mili- 
• tary. He shall expedite all such measures as may be resolved 
upon by the legislative assembly and shall take care that the 
laws be faithfully executed. 

Sec. 76. The governor shall have power to remit fines and 
forfeitures, to grant reprieve, commutations and pardons after 
conviction, for all offenses except treason and cases of impeach¬ 
ment; but the legislative assembly may by law regulate the man¬ 
ner in which the remission of fines, pardons, commutations and 
reprieves may be applied for. Upon conviction for treason he 
shall have power to suspend the execution of sentence until the 
case shall be reported to the legislative assembly at its next reg¬ 
ular session, when the legislative assembly shall either pardon or 
commute the sentence, direct the execution of the sentence or 
grant further reprieve. He shall communicate to the legislative 
assembly at each regular session each case of remission of fine, 
reprieve, commutation or pardon granted by him, stating the 
name of the convict, the crime for which he is convicted, the 
sentence and its date, and the date of the remission, commuta¬ 
tion, pardon or reprieve, with his reasons for granting the same. 

Note.—This section amended by Article 3, Amendments to the Con¬ 
stitution. 

Sec. 77. The lieutenant governor shall be president of the 
senate, but shall have no vote unless they be equally divided. 
If, during a vacancy in the office of governor, the lieutenant 
governor shall be impeached, displaced, resign or die, or from 
mental or physical disease, or otherwise become incapable of per¬ 
forming the duties of his office, the secretary of State shall act as 
governor until the vacancy shall be filled or the disability removed. 

Sec. 78. When any office shall from any cause become va¬ 
cant, and no mode is provided by the constitution or law for 
filling such vacancy, the governor shall have power to fill such 
vacancy by appointment. 

Sec. 79. Every bill which shall have passed the legislative 
assembly shall, before it becomes a law, be presented to the gov¬ 
ernor. If he approves, he shall sign, but if not, he shall return 
with his objections, to the house in which it originated, which 
shall enter the objections at large upon the journal, and proceed 


Powers of 
governor 
Head of 
militia 


Message of 
governor 


Pardoning 

power 


Powers of 
lieutenant 
governor: 
president 
o£ senate 


Vacancies 

filled 


Veto 
power of 
governor 


68 


CONSTITUTION OF NORTH DAKOTA 


No pocket 
veto 


Portions of 
act may be 
vetoed 


Governor 
may not 
bribe, nor 
use unduly 
his official 
influence 
over legis¬ 
lation 


to reconsider it. If, after such reconsideration, two thirds of the 
members-elect shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, to¬ 
gether with the objections, to the other house, by which it shall 
likewise be reconsidered, and if it be approved by two thirds of 
the members-elect, it shall become a law; but in all such cases 
the vote of both houses shall be determined by the yeas and nays, 
and the names of the members voting for and against the bill 
shall be entered upon the journal of each house respectively. If 
any bill shall not be returned by the governor within three days 
(Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, 
the same shall be a law unless the legislative assembly, by its 
adjournment, prevent its return, in which case it shall be a law 
unless he shall file the same with his objections in the office of 
the secretary of state within fifteen days after such adjournment. 

Sec. 80. The governor shall have power to disapprove of any 
item or items or part or parts of any bill making appropriations 
of money or property, embracing distinct items, and the part or 
parts of the bill approved shall be the law, and the item or items 
and part or parts disapproved shall be void, unless enacted in 
the following manner: If the legislative assembly be in session he 
shall transmit to the house in which the bill originated a copy of 
the item or items, or part or parts thereof disapproved, together 
with his objections thereto, and the items or parts objected to 
shall be reconsidered, and each item or part shall then take the 
same course as is prescribed for the passage of bills over the execu¬ 
tive veto. 

Sec. 81. Any governor of this State who asks, receives or 
agrees to receive, any bribe upon any understanding that his 
official opinion, judgment or action shall be influenced thereby, 
or who gives or offers, or promises his official influence in consid¬ 
eration that any member of the legislative assembly shall give 
his official vote or influence on any particular side of any ques¬ 
tion or matter upon which he may be required to act in his offi¬ 
cial capacity, or who menaces any member by the threatened 
use of his veto power, or who offers or promises any member that 
he, the said governor, will appoint any particular person or per¬ 
sons to any office created or thereafter to be created, in considera¬ 
tion that any member shall give his official vote or influence on 
any matter pending or thereafter to be introduced into either 
house of said legislative assembly, or who threatens any member 
that he, the said governor, will remove any person or persons 
from office or position, with intent in any manner to influence 
the action of said member, shall be punished in the manner now, 
or that may hereafter be provided by law, and upon conviction 
thereof shall forfeit all right to hold or exercise any office of trust 
or honor in this State. 


JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT 


69 


Sec. 82. There shall be chosen by the qualified electors of 
the State, at the times and places of choosing members of the 
legislative assembly, a secretary of State, auditor, treasurer, 
superintendent of public instruction, commissioner of insurance, 
three commissioners of railroads, an attorney general and one 
commissioner of agriculture and labor, who shall have attained 
the age of twenty-five years, shall be citizens of the United States, 
and shall have the qualifications of State electors. They shall 
severally hold their offices at the seat of government, for the 
term of two years and until their successors are elected and fully 
qualified, but no person shall be eligible to the office of treasurer 
for more than two consecutive terms. 

Sec. 83. The powers and duties of the secretary of State, 
auditor, treasurer, superintendent of public instruction, commis¬ 
sioner of insurance, commissioners of railroads, attorney general 
and commissioner of agriculture and labor shall be as prescribed 
by law. 

Sec. 84. Until otherwise provided by law, the governor shall 
receive an annual salary of three thousand dollars; the lieutenant 
governor shall receive an annual salary of one thousand dollars; 
the secretary of State, auditor, treasurer, superintendent of pub¬ 
lic instruction, commissioner of insurance, commissioners of 
railroads, and attorney general shall each receive an annual 
salary of two thousand dollars; the salary of the commissioner of 
agriculture and labor shall be as prescribed by law, but the sala¬ 
ries of any of the said officers shall not be increased or diminished 
during the period for which they shall have been elected, and all 
fees and profits arising from any of the said offices shall be cov¬ 
ered into the State treasury. 

ARTICLE IV—Judicial Department 

Sec. 85. The judicial power of the State of North Dakota 
shall be vested in a supreme court, district courts, county courts, 
justices of the peace, and in such other courts as may be created 
by law for cities, incorporated towns and villages. 

Sec. 86. The supreme court, except as otherwise provided 
in this constitution, shall have appellate jurisdiction only, which 
shall be co-extensive with the State and shall have a general 
superintending control over all inferior courts under such regula¬ 
tions and limitations as may be prescribed by law. 

Sec. 87. It shall have power to issue writs of habeas corpus, 
mandamus, quo warranto, certiorari, injunction and such other 
original and remedial writs as may be necessary to the proper 
exercise of its jurisdiction, and shall have authority to hear and 
determine the same; provided, however, that no jury trial shall 


Other 

elective 

executive 

officers 


Powers 
and duties 
of sec. of 
state, etc. 


Salary of 
governor 
and other 
executives 


Judicial 

powers 


Supreme 

court 


Jurisdic¬ 
tion of su¬ 
preme 
court 


70 


CONSTITUTION OF NORTH DAKOTA 


Where and 
when su¬ 
preme 
court 
meets 


Five judges 
of supreme 
court 


Judges 
elected by 
people 


Term of 
office 


First elec¬ 
tion and 
terms 


Chief 

justice 


Minor 

court 

officers 


be allowed in said supreme court, but in proper cases questions 
of fact may be sent by said court to a district court for trial. 

Sec. 88. Until otherwise provided by law three terms of the 
supreme court shall be held each year, one at the seat of govern¬ 
ment, one at Fargo in the county of Cass, and one at Grand 
Forks, in the county of Grand Forks. 

Note.—Under the provisions of an act of the legislature of 1909, two 
general terms of the supreme court shall be held at the seat of 
government, to be known as the April and October terms, and 
only special terms will be held at cities other than Bismarck upon 
twenty days previous published notice. 

Sec. 89. The supreme court shall consist of three judges, a 
majority of whom shall be necessary to form a quorum or pro¬ 
nounce a decision, but one or more of said judges may adjourn 
the court from day to day or to a day certain. 

Note.—Five judges provided for by amendment adopted 1908. 

Sec. 90. The judges of the supreme court shall be elected by 
the qualified electors of the State at large, and except as may be 
otherwise provided herein for the first election for judges under 
this constitution, said judges shall be elected at general elec¬ 
tions. 

Sec. 91. The term of office of the judges of the supreme court 
except as in this article otherwise provided, shall be six years, 
and they shall hold their offices until their successors are duly 
qualified. 

Sec. 92. The judges of the supreme court shall, immediately 
after the first election under this constitution, be classified by lot 
so that one shall hold his office for the term of three years, one 
for the term of five years, and one for the term of seven years 
from the first Monday in December, A. D. 1889. The lots shall 
be drawn by the judges, who shall for that purpose assemble 
at the seat of government, and they shall cause the result thereof 
to be certified to the secretary of the territory and filed in his 
office, unless the secretary of State of North Dakota shall have 
entered upon the duties of his office, in which event said certifi¬ 
cation shall be filed therein. The j udge having the shortest term 
to serve, not holding his office by election or appointment to fill 
a vacancy, shall be chief justice and shall preside at all terms of 
the supreme court, and in case of his absence the judge having 
in like manner the next shortest term to serve shall preside in his 
stead. 

Sec. 93. There shall be a clerk and also a reporter of the 
supreme court, who shall be appointed by the judges thereof, 
and who shall hold their offices during the pleasure of said judge, 
and whose duties and emoluments shall be prescribed by law 
and by rules of the supreme court not inconsistent with law. The 


JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT 


71 


legislative assembly shall make provision for the publication and 
distribution of the decisions of the supreme court and for the sale 
of the published volumes thereof. 

Sec. 94. No person shall be eligible to the office of judge of 
the supreme court unless he be learned in law, be at least thirty 
years of age and a citizen of the United States, nor unless he shall 
have resided in this State or the territory of Dakota three years 
next preceding his election. 

Sec. 95. Whenever the population of the State of North 
Dakota shall equal 600,000 the legislative assembly shall have 
the power to increase the number of the judges of the supreme 
court to five, in which event a majority of said court, as thus 
increased, shall constitute a quorum. 

Note.—See Amendments, Article X. 

Sec. 96. No duties shall be imposed by law upon the supreme 
court or any of the judges thereof, except such as are judicial, 
nor shall any of the judges thereof exercise any power of appoint¬ 
ment except as herein provided. 

Sec. 97. The style of all process shall be “The State of North 
Dakota.” All prosecutions shall be carried on in the name and 
by the authority of the State of North Dakota, and conclude 
“against the peace and dignity of the State of North Dakota.” 

Sec. 98. Any vacancy happening by death, resignation or 
otherwise in the office of judge of the supreme court shall be 
filled by appointment, by the governor, which appointment shall 
continue until the first general election thereafter, when said 
vacancy shall be filled by election., 

Sec. 99. The judges of the supreme and district courts shall 
receive such compensation for their services as may be prescribed 
by law, which compensation shall not be increased or diminished 
during the term for which a judge shall have been elected. 

Sec. 100. In case a judge of the supreme court shall be in 
any way interested in a cause brought before said court the re¬ 
maining judges, of said court shall call one of the district judges 
to sit with them in the hearing of said cause. 

Sec. 101. When a judgment or decree is reversed or con¬ 
firmed by the supreme court every point fairly arising upon the 
record of the case shall be considered and decided, and the rea¬ 
sons therefor shall be concisely stated in writing, signed by the 
judges concurring, filed in the office of the clerk of the supreme 
court, and preserved with a record of the case. Any judge 
dissenting therefrom may give the reasons for his dissent in writ¬ 
ing over his signature. 

Sec. 102. It shall be the duty of the court to prepare a sylla¬ 
bus of the points adjudicated in each case, which shall be con- 


Court de¬ 
cisions 
published 

Eligibility 
of judges 


J udges 
may be in¬ 
creased 


Duties 


) 


Vacancies 


Compensa¬ 

tion 


Judges 

disquali¬ 

fied 


Decisions 
in writing 


Adjudi¬ 

cated 

points 


72 


CONSTITUTION OF NORTH DAKOTA 


Jurisdic¬ 
tion of 
district 
courts 


Judicial 

districts 


Increase in 
judicial 
districts 


Eligibility 
of district 
judge 


Clerk 


Appeals 


County 

courts 


curred in by a majority of the judges thereof, and it shall be pre¬ 
fixed to the published reports of the case. 

Sec. 103. The district courts shall have original jurisdiction, 
except as otherwise provided in this constitution, of all causes 
both at law and equity, and such appellate jurisdiction as may be 
conferred by law. They and the judges thereof shall also have 
jurisdiction and power to issue writs of habeas corpus, quo 
warranto, certiorari, injunction and other original and remedial 
writs, with authority to hear and determine the same. 

Sec. 104. The State shall be divided into six judicial districts, 
in each of which there shall be elected at general elections by the 
electors thereof one judge of the district court therein whose 
term of office shall be four years from the first Monday in January 
succeeding his election and until his successor is duly qualified. 
This section shall not be construed as governing the first elec¬ 
tion of district judges under this constitution. 

[Sec. 105. Names the districts and the territory embraced 
by each. There are now ten districts (1910).] 

Sec. 106. The legislative assembly may, whenever two thirds 
of the members of each house shall concur therein, but not oftener 
than once in four years, increase the number of said judicial dis¬ 
tricts and the judges thereof; such districts shall be formed from 
compact territory and bounded by county lines, but such in¬ 
crease or change in the boundaries of the districts shall not work 
the removal of any judge from his office during the term for 
which he may have been elected or appointed. 

Sec. 107. No person shall be eligible to the office of district 
judge, unless he be learned in the law, be at least twenty-five 
years of age, and a citizen of the United States, nor unless he 
shall have resided within the State or territory of Dakota at 
least two years next preceding his election, nor unless he shall 
at the time of his election be an elector within the judicial dis¬ 
trict for which he is elected. 

Sec. 108. There shall be a clerk of the district court in each 
organized county in which a court is holden who shall be elected 
by the qualified electors of the county, and shall hold his office 
for the same term as other county officers. He shall receive such 
compensation for his services as may be prescribed by law. 

Sec. 109. Writs of error and appeals may be allowed from 
the decisions of the district courts to the supreme court under 
such regulations as may be prescribed by law. 

County Courts 

Sec. 110 . There shall be established in each county a county 
court which shall be a court of record, open at all times and 


JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT 


73 


holden by one judge, elected by the electors of the county, and 
whose term of office shall be two years. 

Sec. 111. The county court shall have exclusive original 
jurisdiction in probate and testamentary matters, the appoint¬ 
ment of administrators and guardians, the settlement of the ac¬ 
counts of executors, administrators and guardians, the sale of 
lands, by executors, administrators and guardians, and such 
other probate jurisdiction as may be conferred bylaw; provided, 
that whenever the voters of any county having a population of 
2,000 or over shall decide by a majority vote that they desire the 
jurisdiction of said court increased above that limited by this 
constitution, then said county court shall have concurrent juris¬ 
diction with the district courts in all civil actions where the 
amount in controversy does not exceed $1,000, and in all criminal 
actions below the grade of felony, and in case it is decided by the 
voters of any county to so increase the jurisdiction of said county 
court, the jurisdiction in cases of misdemeanors arising under 
state laws which may have been conferred upon police magis¬ 
trates shall cease. The qualifications of the judge of the county 
court in counties where the jurisdiction of said court shall have 
been increased shall be the same as those of the district judge, 
except that he shall be a resident of the county at the time of his 
election, and said county judge shall receive such salary for his 
services as may be provided by law. In case the voters of any 
county decide to increase the jurisdiction of said county courts, 
then such jurisdiction as thus increased shall remain until other¬ 
wise provided by law. 


Justices of the Peace 

Sec. 112. The legislative assembly shall provide by law for 
the election of justices of the peace in each organized county 
within the State. But the number of said justices to be elected 
in each organized county shall be limited by law to such a number 
as shall be necessary for the proper administration of justice. 
The justices of the peace herein provided for shall have concurrent 
jurisdiction with the district court in all civil actions when the 
amount in controversy, exclusive of costs, does not exceed $200, 
and in counties where no county court with criminal jurisdiction 
exists they shall have such jurisdiction to hear and determine 
cases of misdemeanor as may be provided by law, but in no case 
shall said justices of the peace have jurisdiction when the bound¬ 
aries of or title to real estate shall come in question. The legis¬ 
lative assembly shall have power to abolish the office of justice 
of the peace and confer that jurisdiction upon judges of county 
courts or elsewhere."* 


Jurisdic¬ 
tion of 
county 
courts 


Increased 

jurisdic¬ 

tion 


Salary 


Justices of 
the peace 


Jurisdic¬ 

tion 


u 


CONSTITUTION OF NORTH DAKOTA 


Police 

magis¬ 

trates 

elected 


Jurisdic¬ 
tion of 


Appeals 

from 


Sessions 
of courts 


Judges not 
eligible to 
other 
offices 


Courts of 
conciliation 


Police Magistrates 

• 

Sec. 113. The legislative assembly shall provide by law for 
the election of police magistrates in cities, incorporated towns 
and villages, who in addition to their jurisdiction of all cases 
arising under the ordinances of said cities, towns and villages, 
shall be ex officio justices of the peace of the county in which said 
cities, towns and villages may be located. And the legislative 
assembly may confer upon said police magistrates the jurisdic¬ 
tion to hear, try and determine all cases of misdemeanors, and 
the prosecutions therein shall be by information. 

Sec. 114. Appeals shall lie from the county court, final deci¬ 
sions of justices of the peace and police magistrates in such cases 
and pursuant to such regulations as may be prescribed by law. 


Miscellaneous Provisions 

Sec. 115. The time of holding courts in the several counties 
of a district shall be as prescribed by law, but at least two terms 
of the district court shall be held annually in each organized 
county, and the legislative assembly shall make provision for 
attaching unorganized counties or territories to organized coun¬ 
ties for judicial purposes. 

Sec. 116. Judges of the district courts may hold court in 
other districts than their own under such regulations as shall be 
prescribed by law. 

Sec. 117. No judge of the supreme or district court shall act 
as attorney or counselor at law. 

Sec 118. Until the legislative assembly shall provide by 
law for fixing the terms of court, the judges of the supreme and 
district courts shall fix the terms thereof. 

Sec. 119. No judge of the supreme or district courts shall be 
elected or appointed to any other than judicial offices or be eligi¬ 
ble thereto during the term for which he was elected or appointed 
such judge. All votes or appointments for either of them for any 
elective or appointive office except that of judge of the supreme 
court, or district court, given by the legislative assembly or the 
people, shall be void. 

Sec. 120. Tribunals of conciliation may be established with 
such powers and duties as shall be prescribed by law or the powers 
and duties of such may be conferred upon other courts of justice; 
but such tribunals or other courts when sitting as such, shall have 
no power to render judgment to be obligatory on the parties, 
unless they voluntarily submit their matters of difference and 
agree to abide the judgment of such tribunals or courts. 


ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 


75 


ARTICLE V—Elective Franchise 

Sec. 121. Every male person of the age of twenty-one years 
and upwards belonging to either of the following classes, who 
shall have resided in the State one year, in the county six months 
and in the precinct ninety days next preceding any election, 
shall be deemed a qualified elector at such election: 

First. Citizens of the United States. 

Second. Persons of foreign birth who shall have declared 
their intention to become citizens one year and not more than six 
years prior to such election, conformably to the naturalization 
laws of the United States. 

Third. Civilized persons of Indian descent who shall have sev¬ 
ered their tribal relations two years next preceding such election. 

Note.—This section amended by Article 2, amendments to the consti¬ 
tution. 

Sec. 122. The legislative assembly shall be empowered to 
make further extensions of suffrage hereafter, at its discretion, 
to all citizens of mature age and sound mind, not convicted of 
crime, without regard to sex; but no law extending or restricting 
the right of suffrage shall be in force until adopted by a majority 
of the electors of the State voting at a general election. 

Sec. 123. Electors shall in all cases except treason, felony, 
breach of the peace or illegal voting, be privileged from arrest on 
the days of election during their attendance at, going to and 
returning from such election, and no elector shall be obliged to 
perform military duty on the day of election, except in time of 
war or public danger. 

Sec. 124. The general elections of the State shall be biennial, 
and shall be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in 
November; provided, that the first general election under this 
constitution shall be held on the first Tuesday after the first 
Monday in November, A. D. 1890. 

Sec. 125. No elector shall be deemed to have lost his resi¬ 
dence in this State by reason of his absence on business of the 
United States or of this State or in the military or naval service 
of the United States. 

Sec. 126. No soldier, seaman or marine in the army or navy 
of the United States shall be deemed a resident of this State in 
consequence of his being stationed therein. 

Sec. 127. No person who is under guardianship, non compos 
mentis, or insane, shall be qualified to vote at any election, nor 
shall any person convicted of treason or felony, unless restored 
to civil rights. 

Note.—This section amended by Article 2, amendments to the constitu¬ 
tion. 


Who may 
vote 


Citizens 

only 


Extension 
of suhrage 
to women 


Electors 

protected 


Time of 
elections 


Absentee 

electors 


Bona fide 
residents 


Disquali¬ 
fied elect¬ 
ors 


Women 

vote 


Secret 

ballot 


Organiza¬ 
tion of 
municipal 
bodies 


Private 

corpora¬ 

tions 


Bona fide 
organiza¬ 
tions 


Corpora¬ 

tion 

charters 


Right of 
eminent 
domain 


Police 
power of 
State 


76 CONSTITUTION OF NORTH DAKOTA 

Sec. 128. Any woman having the qualifications enumerated 
in section 121 of this article, as to age, residence and citizenship, 
and including those now qualified by the laws of the territory, 
may vote for all school officers, and upon all questions pertaining 
solely to school matters, and be eligible to any school office. 

Sec. 129. All elections by the people shall be by secret ballot, 
subject to such regulations as shall be provided by law. 

ARTICLE VI—Municipal Corporations 

Sec. 130. The legislative assembly shall provide by general 
law for the organization of municipal corporations, restricting 
their powers as to levying taxes and assessments, borrowing 
money and contracting debts; and money raised by taxation, 
loan or assessment for any purpose shall not be diverted to any 
other purpose except by authority of law. 

ARTICLE VII—Corporations Other Than Municipal 

Sec. 131. No charter of incorporation shall be granted, changed 
or amended by special law, except in the case of such municipal, 
charitable, educational, penal or reformatory corporations as may 
be under the control of the State; but the legislative assembiy 
shall provide by general laws for the organization of all corpora¬ 
tions hereafter to be created, and any such law, so passed, shall 
be subject to future repeal or alteration. 

Sec. 132. All existing charters or grants of special or exclusive 
privileges, under which a bona fide organization shall not have 
taken place and business been commenced in good faith at the 
time this constitution takes effect, shall thereafter have no va¬ 
lidity. 

Sec., 133. The legislative assembly shall not remit the for¬ 
feiture of the charter to any corporation now existing, nor alter 
or amend the same, nor pass any other general or special law 
for the benefit of such corporation, except upon the condition 
that such corporation shall thereafter-hold its charter subject to 
the provisions of this constitution. 

Sec. 134. The exercise of the right of eminent domain shall 
never be abridged, or so construed as to prevent the legislative 
assembly from taking the property and franchises of incorporated 
companies and subjecting them to public use, the same as the 
property of individuals; and the exercise of the police power of 
this State shall never be abridged, or so construed as to permit 
corporations to conduct their business in such a manner as to 
infringe the equal rights of individuals or the general well being 
of the State, 


CORPORATIONS 


77 


Sec. 135. In all elections for directors or managers of a corpo¬ 
ration, each member or shareholder may cast the whole number 
of his votes for one candidate, or distribute them upon two or 
more candidates, as he may prefer. 

Sec. 136. No foreign corporation shall do business in this 
State without having one or more places of business and an 
authorized agent or agents in the same, upon whom process may 
be served. 

Sec. 137. No corporation shall engage in any business other 
than that expressly authorized in its charter. 

Sec. 138. No corporation shall issue stock or bonds except 
for money, labor done, or money or property actually received; 
and all fictitious increase of stock or indebtedness shall be void. 
The stock and indebtedness of corporations shall not be increased 
except in pursuance of general law, nor without the consent of 
the persons holding the larger amount in value of the stock 
first obtained at a meeting to be held after sixty days’ notice 
given in pursuance of law. 

Sec. 139. No law shall be passed by the legislative assembly 
granting the right to construct and operate a street railroad, 
telegraph, telephone or electric light plant within any city, town 
or incorporated village, without requiring the consent of the 
local authorities having the control of the street or highway pro¬ 
posed to be occupied for such purposes. 

Sec. 140. Every railroad corporation organized and doing 
business in this State under the laws or authority thereof, shall 
have and maintain a public office or place in the State for the 
transaction of its business, where transfers of its stock shall be 
made and in which shall be kept for public inspection books in 
which shall be recorded the amount of capital stock subscribed, 
and by whom, the names of the owners of its stock and the amount 
owned by them respectively; the amount of stock paid in and 
by whom and the transfers of said stock; the amount of its assets 
and liabilities and the names and place of residence of its officers. 
The directors of every railroad corporation shall annually make 
a report, under oath to the auditor of public accounts, or some 
officer or officers to be designated by law, of all their acts and 
doings, which report shall include such matters relating to rail¬ 
roads as may be prescribed by law, and the legislative assembly 
shall pass laws enforcing by suitable penalties the provisions of 
this section; provided, the provisions of this section shall not be 
so construed as to apply to foreign corporations. 

Sec. 141. No railroad corporation shall consolidate its stock, 
property or franchises with any other railroad corporation own¬ 
ing a parallel or competing line; and in no case shall any consoli¬ 
dation take place except upon public notice given at least sixty 


Election of 
corpora¬ 
tion di¬ 
rectors 


Foreign 

corpora¬ 

tions 


Business of 
corpora¬ 
tion limit¬ 
ed 

Stock of 
corpora¬ 
tion must 
be paid up 


Corpora¬ 
tions must 
get consent 
of local 
bodies 


State in¬ 
spection of 
railroads 


Railroads 
must re¬ 
port an¬ 
nually 


Competi¬ 
tion safe¬ 
guarded 


78 


CONSTITUTION OF NORTH DAKOTA 


State may 
regulate 
railroad 
rates 


Right to 
organize 
new rail¬ 
roads 


“Corpora¬ 
tion” is a 
private 
business 


State 
banks 
must “se¬ 
cure” issue 
of money 


Illegal for 
combina¬ 
tions to 
control 
prices 


days to all stockholders, in such manner as may be provided by 
law. Any attempt to evade the provisions of this section by 
any railroad corporation by lease or otherwise, shall work a for¬ 
feiture of its charter. 

Sec. 142. Railways heretofore constructed, or that may here¬ 
after be constructed in this State, are hereby declared public 
highways, and all railroads, sleeping car, telegraph, telephone 
and transportation companies of passengers, intelligence and 
freight are declared to be common carriers and subject to legis¬ 
lative control; and the legislative assembly shall have power to 
enact laws regulating and controlling the rates of charges for 
the transportation of passengers, intelligence and freight, as such 
common carriers, from one point to another in this State; pro¬ 
vided, that appeal may be had to the courts of this State from 
the rates so fixed; but the rates fixed by the legislative assembly 
or board of railroad commissioners shall remain in force pending 
the decision of the courts. 

Sec. 143. Any association or corporation organized for the 
purpose shall have the right to construct and operate a rail¬ 
road between any points within this State, and to connect at 
the state line with the railroads of other States. Every railroad 
company shall have the right with its road to intersect, connect 
with or cross any other, and shall receive and transport each 
other’s passengers, tonnage and cars, loaded or empty, without 
delay or discrimination. 

Sec. 144. The term “ corporation ” as used in this article 
shall not be understood as embracing municipalities or political 
subdivisions of the State unless otherwise expressly stated, but 
it shall be held and construed to include all associations and 
joint stock companies having any of the powers or privileges 
of corporations not possessed by individuals or partnerships. 

Sec. 145. If a general banking law be enacted, it shall pro¬ 
vide for the registry and countersigning by an officer of the 
State, of all notes or bills designed for circulation, and that 
ample security to the full amount thereof shall be deposited 
with the state treasurer for the redemption of such notes or 
bills. 

Sec. 146. Any combination between individuals, corporations, 
associations, or either, having for its object or effect the con¬ 
trolling of the price of any product of the soil or any article of 
manufacture or commerce, or the cost of exchange or trans¬ 
portation, is prohibited and hereby declared unlawful and against 
public policy; and any and all franchises heretofore granted or 
extended, or that may hereafter be granted or extended in this 
State, whenever the owner or owners thereof violate this article, 
shall be deemed annulled and become void. 


EDUCATION 


79 


ARTICLE VIII—Education 

Sec. 147. A high degree of intelligence, patriotism, integrity 
and morality on the part of every voter in a government by the 
people being necessary in order to insure the continuance of 
that government and the prosperity and happiness of the people, 
the legislative assembly shall make provision for the establish¬ 
ment and maintenance of a system of public schools which shall 
be open to all children of the State of North Dakota and free 
from sectarian control. This legislative requirement shall be 
irrevocable without the consent of the United States and the 
people of North Dakota. 

Sec. 148. The legislative assembly shall provide, at its first 
session after the adoption of this constitution, for a uniform 
system for free public schools throughout the State, beginning 
with the primary and extending through all grades up to and 
including the normal and collegiate course. 

Sec. 149. In all schools instructions shall be given as far as 
practicable in those branches of knowledge that tend to impress 
upon the mind the vital importance of truthfulness, temperance, 
purity, public spirit, and respect for honest labor of every kind. 

Sec. 150. A superintendent of schools for each county shall be 
elected every two years, whose qualifications, duties, powers 
and compensation shall be fixed by law. 

Sec. 151. The legislative assembly shall take such other steps 
as may be necessary to prevent illiteracy, secure a reasonable 
degree of uniformity in course of study, and to promote industrial, 
scientific, and agricultural improvements. 

Sec. 152. All colleges, universities, and other educational 
institutions, for the support of which lands have been granted 
to this State, or which are supported by a public tax, shall remain 
under the absolute and exclusive control of the State. No money 
raised for the support of the public schools of the State shall be 
appropriated to or used for the support of any sectarian school. 

ARTICLE IX—School and Public Lands 

Sec. 153. All proceeds of the public lands that have hereto¬ 
fore been or may hereafter be granted by the United States for 
the support of the common schools in this State; all such per 
centum as may be granted by the United States on the sale of 
public lands; the proceeds of property that shall fall to the State 
by escheat; the proceeds of all gifts and donations to the State 
for common schools, or not otherwise appropriated by the terms 
of the gift, and all other property otherwise acquired for common 
schools, shall be and remain a perpetual fund for the mainte- 


F ree pub¬ 
lic educa¬ 
tion 


Non¬ 

sectarian 

control 


Uniform 
system in 
public 
schools 


What 
should be 
taught 


Superin¬ 
tendent of 
schools 


Citizens 
must be 
taught to 
read and 
write 

State con¬ 
trol of 
state 
schools 


Permanent 
school 
fund— 
sources of 


Increase 
but not 
diminish 


80 


CONSTITUTION OF NORTH DAKOTA 


School 
funds, 
how ap¬ 
plied 


Sale of 
public 
land for 
school 
fund pur¬ 
poses 


Who con¬ 
trols 
school 
lands 


How 
school 
lands are 
evaluated 


nance of the common schools of the State. It shall be deemed a 
trust fund, the principal of which shall forever remain inviolate 
and may be increased but never diminished. The State shall 
make good all losses thereof. 

Sec. 154. The interest and income of this fund together with 
the net proceeds of all fines for violation of state laws, and all 
other sums which may be added thereto by law shall be faithfully 
used and applied each year for the benefit of the common schools 
of the State, and shall be for this purpose apportioned among 
and between all the several common school corporations of the 
State in proportion to the number of children in each of school 
age, as may be fixed by law, and no part of the fund shall ever 
be diverted even temporarily, from this purpose, or used for any 
other purpose whatever than the maintenance of common schools 
for the equal benefit of all the people of the State; provided, how¬ 
ever, that if any portion of the interest or income aforesaid shall 
be not expended during any year, said portion shall be added to 
and become a part of the school fund. 

Sec. 155. After one year from the assembling of the first 
legislative assembly the lands granted to the State from the 
United States for the support of the common schools may be sold 
upon the following conditions and no other: No more than one 
fourth of all such lands shall be sold within the first five years 
after the same become saleable by virtue of this section. No 
more than one half of the remainder within ten years after the 
same become saleable as aforesaid. The residue may be sold at 
any time after the expiration of said ten years. The legislative 
assembly shall provide for the sale of all school lands subject to 
the provisions of this article. The coal lands of the State shall 
never be sold, but the legislative assembly may by general laws 
provide for leasing the same. The words “coal lands” shall in¬ 
clude lands bearing lignite coal. 

Sec. 156. The superintendent of public instruction, gov¬ 
ernor, attorney general, secretary of state and state auditor shall 
constitute a board of commissioners, which shall be denominated 
the “Board of University and School Lands” and, subject to 
the provisions of this article, and any law that may be passed 
by the legislative assembly, said board shall have control of the 
appraisement, sale, rental and disposal of all school and university 
lands, and shall direct the investment of the funds arising there¬ 
from in the hands of the state treasurer, under the limitations 
in section 160 of this article. 

Sec. 157. The county superintendent of common schools, 
the chairman of the county board and the county auditor shall 
constitute boards of appraisal, and under the authority of the 
state board of university and school lands shall appraise all school 


SCHOOL AND PUBLIC LANDS 


81 


lands within their respective counties which they may from time 
to time recommend for sale at their actual value under the pre¬ 
scribed terms, and shall first select and designate for sale the 
most valuable lands. 

Sec. 158. No land shall be sold for less than the appraised 
value and in no case for less than $10 per acre. The purchaser 
shall pay one fifth of the price in cash and the remaining four 
fifths as follows: One fifth in five years, one fifth in ten years, 
one fifth in fifteen years and one fifth in twenty years, with 
interest at the rate of not less than six per centum, payable annu¬ 
ally in advance. All sales shall be held at the county seat of 
the county in which the land to be sold is situate, and shall be at 
public auction and to the highest bidder, after sixty days’ adver¬ 
tisement of the same in a newspaper of general circulation in the 
vicinity of the lands to be sold, and one at the seat of government. 
Such lands as shall not have been specially subdivided shall be 
offered in tracts of one-quarter section, and those so subdivided 
in the smallest subdivisions. All lands designated for sale and 
not sold within two years after appraisal shall be reappraised 
before they are sold. No grant or patent for any such lands shall 
issue until payment is made for the same; provided, that the lands 
contracted to be sold by the State shall be subject to taxation 
from the date of such contract. In case the taxes assessed against 
any of said lands for any year remain unpaid until the first Mon¬ 
day in October of the following year, then and thereupon the 
contract of sale for such lands shall become null and void. 

Note.—This section amended by Amendment Article IX. 

Sec. 159. All lands, money or other property donated, 
granted or received from the United States or any other source 
for a university, school of mines, reform school, agricultural col¬ 
lege, deaf and dumb asylum, normal school or other educational 
or charitable institution or purpose, and the proceeds of all such 
lands and other property so received from any source, shall be 
and remain perpetual funds, the interest and income of which, 
together with the rents of all such lands as may remain unsold, 
shall be inviolably appropriated and applied to the specific ob¬ 
jects of the original grants or gifts. The principal of every such 
fund may be increased but shall never be diminished, and the in¬ 
terest and income only shall be used. Every such fund shall be 
deemed a trust fund held by the State, and the State shall make 
good all loses thereof. 

Sec. 160. All lands mentioned in the preceding section shall 
be appraised and sold in the same manner and under the same 
limitations and subject to all the conditions as to price and sale 
as provided above for the appraisal and sale of lands for the bene- 
Civics N. Dak.—6 


How 
school 
land is 
sold, and 
price 


Money 
from sale 
of other 
public 
lands set 
aside as 
permanent 
funds 


How these 
lands are 
sold 


82 


CONSTITUTION OF NORTH DAKOTA 


Renting 
of public 
lands 


Limitation 
on invest¬ 
ment of 
education¬ 
al funds 


Granting 
of public 
lands re¬ 
stricted 


Assembly 
disposes of 
any other 
public 
lands 


fit of common schools; but a distinct and separate account shall 
be kept by the proper officers of each of said funds; provided, 
that the limitations as to the time in which school land may be 
sold shall apply only to lands granted for the support of common 
schools. 

Sec. 161. The legislative assembly shall have authority to 
provide by law for the leasing of lands granted to the State for 
educational and charitable purposes; but no such law shall 
authorize the leasing of said lands for a longer period than five 
years. Said lands shall only be leased for pasturage and meadow 
purposes and at a public auction after notice as heretofore pro¬ 
vided in case of sale; provided, that all of said school lands now 
under cultivation may be leased, at the discretion and under the 
control of the board of university and school lands, for other 
than pasturage and meadow purposes until sold. All rents shall 
be paid in advance. 

Sec. 162. The moneys of the permanent school fund and 
other educational funds shall be invested only in bonds of school 
corporations within the State, bonds of the United States, bonds 
of the State of North Dakota, or in first mortgages on farm lands 
in the State, not exceeding in amount one third of the actual 
value of any subdivision on which the same may be loaned, such 
value to be determined by the board of appraisers of school lands. 

Note.—This section amended by Article 8, amendments to the constitu¬ 
tion, also by Article 9, adopted 1908. 

Sec. 163. No law shall ever be passed by the legislative as¬ 
sembly granting to any person, corporation or association any 
privileges by reason of the occupation, cultivation or improve¬ 
ment of any public lands by said person, corporation or associa¬ 
tion subsequent to the survey thereof by the general government. 
No claim for the occupation, cultivation or improvement of any 
public lands shall ever be recognized, nor shall such occupation, 
cultivation or improvement of any public lands ever be used to 
diminish either directly or indirectly, the purchase price of said 
lands. 

Sec. 164. The legislative assembly shall have authority to 
provide by law for the sale or disposal of all public lands that have 
been heretofore, or may hereafter be granted by the United 
States to the State for purposes other than set forth and named 
in sections 153 and 159 of this article. And the legislative as¬ 
sembly, in providing for the appraisement, sale, rental and dis¬ 
posal of the same, shall not be subject to the provisions and limi¬ 
tations of this article. 

Sec.. 165. The legislative assembly shall pass suitable laws 
for the safekeeping, transfer and disbursement of the state school 
funds; and shall require all officers charged with the same or the 


COUNTY AND TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION 83 


safe keeping thereof to give ample bonds for all moneys and funds 
received by them, and if any of said officers shall convert to his 
own use in any manner or form, or shall loan with or without 
interest or shall deposit in his own name, or otherwise than in 
the name of the State of North Dakota, or shall deposit in any 
banks or with any person or persons, or exchange for other funds 
or property any portion of the school funds aforesaid or pur¬ 
posely allow any portion of the same to remain in his own hands 
uninvested, except in the manner prescribed by law, every such 
act shall constitute an embezzlement of so much of the aforesaid 
school funds as shall be thus taken or loaned, or deposited, or 
exchanged, or withheld, and shall be a felony; and any failure 
to pay over, produce or account for, the state school funds or 
any part of the same entrusted to any such officer, as by law 
required or demanded, shall be held and be taken to be prima 
facie evidence of such embezzlement. 

ARTICLE X—County and Township Organization 

Sec. 166. The several counties in the territory of Dakota 
lying north of the seventh standard parallel as they now exist, 
are hereby declared to be counties of the State of North Dakota. 

Sec. 167. The legislative assembly shall provide by general 
law for organizing new counties, locating the county seats thereof 
temporarily, and changing county lines, but no new county 
shall be organized, nor shall any organized county be so reduced 
as to include an area of less than twenty-four congressional 
townships, and containing a population of less than one thousand 
bona fide inhabitants. And in the organization of new counties 
and in changing the lines of organized counties and boundaries 
of congressional townships, the natural boundaries shall be ob¬ 
served as nearly as may be. 

Sec. 168. All changes in the boundaries of organized counties 
before taking effect shall be submitted to the electors of the 
county or counties to be affected thereby at a general election 
and be adopted by a majority of all the legal votes cast in each 
county at such election; and in case any portion of an organized 
county is stricken off and added to another the county to which 
such portion is added shall assume and be holden for an equitable 
proportion of the indebtedness of the county so reduced. 

Sec. 169. The legislative assembly shall provide by general 
law, for changing county seats in organized counties, but it 
shall have no power to remove the county seat of any organized 
county. 

Sec. 170. The legislative assembly shall provide by general 
law for township organization, under which any county may organ- 


Guarding 
of the 
school 
fund by 
assembly 


Original 

counties 


New 

counties 


Boundary 
and size ol 
counties 


Changes in 
boundaries 
by people 


Locating 

county 

seats 


84 


CONSTITUTION OF NORTH DAKOTA 


How a 
township 
is organ¬ 
ized 


People 
may 
change 
form of 
local gov¬ 
ernment 


Fiscal af¬ 
fairs of 
county 


County 

officials 


Compensa¬ 
tion fixed 
by assem¬ 
bly 


How the 
State 
gets its- 
revenues 


ize, whenever a majority of all the legal voters of such county, 
voting at a general election, shall so determine, and whenever 
any county shall adopt township organization, so much of this 
constitution as provides for the management of the fiscal con¬ 
cerns of said county by the board of county commissioners, may 
be dispensed with by a majority vote of the people voting at any 
general election; and the affairs of said county may be transacted 
by the chairmen of the several township boards of said county, 
and such others as may be provided by law for incorporated 
cities, towns or villages within such county. 

Sec. .171. In any county that shall have adopted a system 
of government by the chairmen of the several township boards, 
the question of continuing the same may be submitted to the 
electors of such county at a general election in such a manner as 
may be provided by law, and if a majority of all the votes cast 
upon such question shall be against said system of government, 
then such system shall cease in said county, and the affairs of 
said county shall then be transacted by a board of county com¬ 
missioners as is now provided by the laws of the territory of 
Dakota. 

Sec. 172. Until the system of county government by the 
chairmen of the several township boards is adopted by any 
county, the fiscal affairs of said county shall be transacted by a 
board of county commissioners. Said board shall consist of not 
less than three and not more than five members, whose terms of 
office shall be prescribed by law. Said board shall hold sessions 
for the transaction of county business as shall be provided by 
law. 

Sec. 173. At the first general election held after the adoption 
of this constitution, and every two years thereafter, there shall be 
elected in each organized county in the state, a county judge, 
clerk of court, register of deeds, county auditor, treasurer, sheriff 
and state’s attorney, who shall be electors of the county in which 
they are elected, and who shall hold their office until their suc¬ 
cessors are elected and qualified. The legislative assembly 
shall provide by law for such other county, township and dis¬ 
trict officers as may be deemed necessary, and shall prescribe 
the duties and compensation of all county, township and district 
officers. The sheriff and treasurer of any county shall not hold 
their respective offices for more than four years in succession. 

ARTICLE XI—Revenue and Taxation 

Sec. 174. The legislative assembly shall provide for raising 
revenue sufficient to defray the expenses of the State for each 
year, not to exceed in any one year four (4) mills on the dollar 


REVENUE AND TAXATION 


85 


of the assessed valuation of all taxable property in the State, 
to be ascertained by the last assessment made for state and 
county purposes, and also a sufficient sum to pay the interest 
on the state debt. 

Sec. 175. No tax shall be levied except in pursuance of law, 
and every law imposing a tax shall state distinctly the object 
of the same, to which only it shall be applied. 

Sec. 176. Laws shall be passed taxing by uniform rule ail 
property according to its true value in money, but the property 
of the United States and the state, county and municipal corpo¬ 
rations, both real and personal, shall be exempt from taxation, 
and the legislative assembly shall by a general law exempt 
from taxation property used exclusively for school, religious, 
cemetery or charitable purposes and personal property to any 
amount not exceeding in value two hundred dollars for each 
individual liable to taxation; but the legislative assembly may, 
by law, provide for the payment of a per centum of gross earn¬ 
ings of railroad companies to be paid in lieu of all state, county, 
township and school taxes on property exclusively used in and 
about the prosecution of the business of such companies as com¬ 
mon carriers, but no real estate of said corporations shall be 
exempted from taxation, in the same manner, and on the same 
basis-as other real estate is taxed, except road-bed, right of way, 
shops and buildings used exclusively in their business as com¬ 
mon carriers, and whenever and so long as such law providing 
for the payment of a per centum on earnings shall be in force, 
that part of section 179 of this article relating to assessment of 
railroad property shall cease to be in force. 

Note.—Addenda to section 176, adopted in 1905. Amendment 4. 

Sec. 177. All improvements on land shall be assessed in 
accordance with section 179, but plowing shall not be consid¬ 
ered as an improvement or add to the value of land for the pur¬ 
pose of assessment. 

Sec. 178. The power of taxation shall never be surrendered 
or suspended by any grant or contract to which the State or any 
county or other municipal corporation shall be a party. 

Sec. 179. All property, except as hereinafter in this section 
provided, shall be assessed in the county, city, township, town, 
village or district in which it is situated, in the manner prescribed 
by law. The franchise, roadway, road-bed, rails, and rolling 
stock of all railroads operated in this State shall be assessed by 
the state board of equalization at their actual value and such 
assessed valuation shall be apportioned to the counties, cities, 
towns, townships and districts in which said roads are located, 
as a basis for taxation of such property in proportion to the 


Tax acts 
explicit 


All prop¬ 
erty taxed 
uniformly, 
but cer¬ 
tain ex¬ 
emptions 
made 


Gross 
earnings 
of railroads 
may be 
taxed 


Improve¬ 
ments on 
land-taxed 


Taxing 
power 
cannot be 
surren¬ 
dered 
Property 
assessed 
where 
located 


How rail¬ 
road prop¬ 
erty is as¬ 
sessed 


86 


CONSTITUTION OF NORTH DAKOTA 


Poll tax 


State may 
borrow 
money 

Debt limit 


How state 
debts are 
paid 


Debt limit 
exceeded 


Local gov¬ 
ernments 
may also 
borrow 
money 


Debt 

limited 


number of miles of railway laid in such counties, cities, towns, 
townships and districts. 

Note,—This section amended by Article 4, amendments to the constitu¬ 
tion. 

Sec. 180. The legislative assembly may provide for the levy, 
collection and disposition of an annual poll tax of not more than 
one dollar and fifty cents on every male inhabitant of this State 
over twenty-one and under fifty years of age, except paupers, 
idiots, insane persons and Indians not taxed. 

Sec. 181. The legislative assembly shall pass all laws neces¬ 
sary to carry out the provisions of this article. 

ARTICLE XII—Public Debt and Public Works 

Sec. 182. The State may, to meet casual deficits or failure 
in the revenue or in case of extraordinary emergencies contract 
debts, but such debts shall never in the aggregate exceed the 
sum of 8200,000, exclusive of what may be the debt of North 
Dakota at the time of the adoption of this constitution. Every 
such debt shall be authorized by law for certain purposes to be 
definitely mentioned therein, and every such law shall provide 
for levying an annual tax sufficient to pay the interest semi¬ 
annually, and the principal within thirty years from the pas¬ 
sage of such law, and shall specially appropriate the proceeds of 
such tax to the payment of said principal and interest, and such 
appropriation shall not be repealed nor the tax discontinued 
until such debt, both principal and interest, shall have been 
fully paid. No debt in excess of the limit named shall be in¬ 
curred except for the purpose of repelling invasion, suppressing 
insurrection, defending the State in time of war, or to provide 
for public defense in case of threatened hostilities; but the issuing 
of new bonds to refund existing indebtedness, shall not be con¬ 
strued to be any part or portion of said $200,000. 

Sec. 183. The debt of any county, township, city, town, 
school district or any other political subdivision, shall never 
exceed five (5) per centum upon the assessed value of the taxable 
property therein; provided, that any incorporated city may by 
a two-thirds vote, increase such indebtedness three per centum 
on such assessed value beyond said five per cent limit. In 
estimating the indebtedness which a city, county, township, 
school district or any other political subdivision may incur, the 
entire amount of existing indebtedness, whether contracted prior 
or subsequent to the adoption of this constitution shall be in¬ 
cluded ; provided, further, that any incorporated city may become 
indebted in any amount not exceeding four per centum on such 
assessed value without regard to the existing indebtedness of' 


MILITIA 


87 


such city, for the purpose of constructing or purchasing water 
works for furnishing a supply of water to the inhabitants of 
such city, or for the purpose of constructing sewers, and for 
no other purpose whatever. All bonds or obligations in excess 
of the amount of indebtedness permitted by this constitution, 
given by any city, county, township, town, school district or 
any other political subdivision, shall be void. 

Sec. 184. Any city, county, township, town, school district 
or any other political subdivision incurring indebtedness shall 
at or before the time of so doing, provide for the collection of 
an annual tax sufficient to pay the interest and also the principal 
thereof when due, and all laws or ordinances providing for the 
payment of the interest or principal of any debt shall be irrepeal- 
able until such debt be paid. 

Sec. 185. Neither the State, nor any county, city, township, 
town, school district or any other political subdivision shall loan 
or give its credit or make donations to or in aid of any individual, 
association or corporation, except for necessary support of the 
poor, nor subscribe to or become the owner of the capital stock 
of any association or corporation, nor shall the State engage in 
any work of internal improvement unless authorized by a two- 
thirds vote of the people. 

Sec. 186. No money shall be paid out of the state treasury 
except upon appropriation by law and on warrant drawn by the 
proper officer, and no hills, claims, accounts or demands against 
the State or any county or other political subdivision, shall be 
audited, allowed or paid until a full, itemized statement in 
writing shall be filed with the officer or officers whose duty it 
may be to audit the same. 

Sec. 187. No bond or evidence of indebtedness of the State 
shall be valid unless the same shall have endorsed thereon a 
certificate signed by the auditor and secretary of state, showing 
that the bond or evidence of debt is issued pursuant to law and 
is within the debt limit. No bond or evidence of debt of any 
county, or bond of any township or other political subdivision 
shall be valid unless the same have endorsed thereon a certifi¬ 
cate signed by the county auditor, or other officer authorized by 
law to sign such certificate, stating that said bond, or evidence 
of debt is issued pursuant to law and is within the debt limit. 


ARTICLE XIII—Militia 

Sec. 188. The militia of this State shall consist of all able 
bodied male persons residing in the State, between the ages of 
eighteen and forty-five years, except such as may be exempted 
by the laws of the United States or of this State. Persons whose 


Debt limit 
extended 
in cities 


Local gov¬ 
ernments 
must pay 
their debts 


State shall 
not aid 
individuals 
financially 


State 

subsidies 


"Appro¬ 
priations” 
necessary 
before pay¬ 
ing out 
money 


Legalizing 

state 

debts 


State 

militia 


88 


CONSTITUTION OF NORTH DAKOTA 


Militia 

organiza¬ 

tion 


Authorized 

volunteers 


Militia 

officers 

Officers 
commis¬ 
sioned by 
governor 

Militia 
free from 
arrest 


Power of 
impeach¬ 
ment 

Senate 
tries im¬ 
peach¬ 
ments 


Two-thirds 
vote nec¬ 
essary 

Governor 
may be 
impeached 


religious tenets or conscientious scruples forbid them to bear 
arms shall not be compelled to do so in times of peace, but shall 
pay an equivalent for a personal service. 

Sec. 189. The militia shall be enrolled, organized, uniformed, 
armed and disciplined in such a manner as shall be provided by 
law, not incompatible with the constitution or laws of the United 
States. 

Sec. 190. The legislative assembly shall provide by law for 
the establishment of volunteer organizations of the several arms 
of the service which shall be classed as active militia; and no 
other organized body of armed men shall be permitted to per¬ 
form military duty in this State except the army of the United 
States, without the proclamation of the governor of the State. 

Sec. 191. All militia officers shall be appointed or elected in 
such a manner as the legislative assembly shall provide. 

Sec. 192. The commissioned officers of the militia shall be 
commissioned by the governor, and no commissioned officer shall 
be removed from office except by sentence of court martial, 
pursuant to law. 

Sec. 193. The militia forces shall in all cases, except treason, 
felony or breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during 
their attendance at musters, parades and elections of officers, and 
in going to and returning from the same. 

ARTICLE XIV—Impeachment and Removal from Office 

Sec. 194. The house of representatives shall have the sole 
power of impeachment. The concurrence of a majority of all 
members elected shall be necessary to an impeachment. 

Sec. 195. All impeachments shall be tried by the senate. 
When sitting for that purpose the senators shall be upon oath 
or affirmation to do justice according to the law and evidence. 
No person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two 
thirds of the members elected. When the governor or lieutenant 
governor is on trial the presiding judge of the supreme court shall 
preside. 

Sec. 196. The governor and other state and judicial officers 
except county judges, justices of the peace and police magistrates, 
shall be liable to impeachment for habitual drunkenness, crimes, 
corrupt conduct, or malfeasance or misdemeanor in office, but 
judgment in such cases shall not extend further than removal 
from office and disqualification to hold any office of trust or 
profit under the State. The person accused, whether convicted 
or acquitted, sha'l nevertheless be liable to indictment, trial, 
judgment and punishment according to law. 

Sec. 197. All officers not liable to impeachment, shall be 


FUTURE AMENDMENTS 


89 


subject to removal for misconduct, malfeasance, crime or mis¬ 
demeanor in office, or for habitual drunkenness or gross incom¬ 
petency in such manner as may be provided by law. 

Sec. 198. No officer shall exercise the duties of his office after 
he shall have been impeached and before his acquittal. 

Sec. 199. On trial of impeachment against the governor, the 
lieutenant governor shall not act as a member of the court. 

Sec. 200. No person shall be tried on impeachment before 
he shall have been served with a copy thereof, at least twenty 
days previous to the day set for trial. 

Sec. 201. No person shall be liable to impeachment twice 
for the same offense. 


Officials 
may be 
removed 


Impeach¬ 
ment. of 
governor 


Only one 
impeach¬ 
ment 


ARTICLE XV—Future Amendments 


Sec. 202. Any amendment or amendments to this constitu¬ 
tion may be proposed in either house of the legislative assembly; 
and if the same shall be agreed to by a majority of the members 
elected to each of the two houses, such proposed amendment 
shall be entered on the journal of the house with the yeas and 
nays taken thereon, and referred to the legislative assembly to 
be chosen at the next general election, and shall be published, as 
provided by law, for three months previous to the time of making 
such choice, and if in the legislative assembly so next chosen as 
aforesaid such proposed amendment or amendments, shall be 
agreed to by a majority of all the members elected to each 
house, then it shall be the duty of the legislative assembly to sub¬ 
mit such proposed amendment or amendments to the people in 
such manner and at such time as the legislative assembly shall 
provide; and if the people shall approve and ratify such amend¬ 
ment or amendments by a majority of the electors qualified to 
vote for members of the legislative assembly voting thereon, 
such amendment or amendments shall become a part of the 
constitution of this State. If two or more amendments shall be 
submitted at the same time they shall be submitted in such 
manner that the electors shall vote for or against each of such 
amendments separately. 


How state 
constitu¬ 
tion may 
be amend¬ 
ed 


Amend¬ 
ments 
must be 
ratified by 
the people 


ARTICLE XVI—Compact With the United States 

[Omitted. Provides for dividing the territorial debt between 
North and South Dakota, for certain land grants, and for religious 
liberty.] 


90 


CONSTITUTION OF NORTH DAKOTA 


Boundaries 
of North 
Dakota 


Seal of 
North 
Dakota 


Debtor’s 

property 

protected 


Child labor 
prohibited 


Flowing 
streams 
belong to 
State 

Oath of 
office 


ARTICLE XVII—Miscellaneous 

Sec. 206. The name of this State shall be “North Dakota.” 
The State of North Dakota shall consist of all the territory 
included within the following boundary, to wit: Commencing at 
a point in the main channel of the Red River of the North, 
where the forty-ninth degree of north latitude crosses the same; 
thence south up the main channel of the same and along the 
boundary line of the State of Minnesota to a point where the 
seventh standard parallel intersects the same; thence west along 
said seventh standard parallel produced due west to a point 
where it intersects the twenty-seventh meridian of longitude 
west from Washington; thence north on said, meridian to a 
point where it intersects the forty-ninth degree of north latitude; 
thence east along said line to place of beginning. 

Sec. 207. The following described seal is hereby declared to 
be and hereby constituted the great seal of the State of North 
Dakota, to wit: A tree in the open field, the trunk of which is 
surrounded by three bundles of wheat; on the right a plow, anvil 
and sledge; on the left, a bow crossed with three arrows, and an 
Indian on horseback pursuing a buffalo toward the setting sun; 
tho foliage of the tree arched by a half circle of forty-two stars, 
surrounded by the motto “Liberty and Union Now and Forever, 
One and Inseparable;” the words “Great Seal” at the top, the 
words “State of North Dakota” at the bottom; “October 1st” 
on the left, and “1889” on the right. The seal to be two and 
one-half inches in diameter. 

Sec. 208. The right of the debtor to enjoy the comforts and 
necessaries of life shall be recognized by wholesome laws exempt¬ 
ing from forced sale to all heads of families, a homestead the 
value of which shall be limited and defined by law; and a reason¬ 
able amount of personal property; the kind and value shall be 
fixed by law. This section shall not be construed to prevent 
liens against the homestead for labor done and materials furnished 
in the improvement thereof, in such manner as may be prescribed 
by law. 

Sec. 209. The labor of children under twelve years of age 
shall be prohibited in mines, factories and workshops in this 
State. 

Sec. 210. All flowing streams and natural water courses shall 
forever remain the property of the State for mining, irrigating 
and manufacturing purposes. 

Sec. 211. Members of the legislative assembly and judicial 
departments, except such inferior officers as may be by law 
exempted, shall, before they enter on the duties of their respect- 


PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS 


91 


ive offices, take and subscribe the following oath or affirmation: 
“I do solemnly swear (or affirm, as the case may be) that I will 
support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitu¬ 
tion of the State of North Dakota; and that I will faithfully 

discharge the duties of the office of..ac-. 

cording to the best of my ability, so help me God” (if an oath), 
(under pain and penalty of perjury, if an affirmation), and no 
other oath, declaration or test shall be required as a qualification 
for any office or public trust. 

Sec. 212. The exchange of “black lists” between corpo¬ 
rations shall be prohibited. 

Sec. 213. The real and personal property of any woman in 
this State, acquired before marriage, and all property to which 
she may after marriage become in any manner rightfully entitled, 
shall be her separate property and shall not be liable for the 
debts of her husband. 


ARTICLE XVIII—Congressional and Legislative 
Apportionment 

[Omitted. This article provides for a temporary division of the 
State into senatorial districts. Present districts are formed by 
the legislative assembly.] 


ARTICLE XIX—Public Institutions 

Sec. 215. The following public institutions of the State are 
permanently located at the places hereinafter named, each 
to have the lands specifically granted to it by the United States, 
in the act of congress approved February 22, 1889, to be dis¬ 
posed of and used in such manner as the legislative assembly 
may prescribe, subject to the limitations provided in the article 
on school and public lands contained in this constitution. 

First. The seat of government at the city of Bismarck in the 
county of Burleigh. 

Second. The state university and the school of mines at the 
city of Grand Forks, in the county of Grand Forks. 

Third. The agricultural college at the city of Fargo, in the 
county of Cass. 

Fourth. A state normal school at the city of Valley City, in 
the county of Barnes; and the legislative assembly in apportion¬ 
ing the grant of eighty thousand acres of land for normal schools 
made in the act of congress referred to shall grant to the said 


“Black 
lists’’ pro¬ 
hibited 
Woman’s 
property- 
rights 


Location of 
public in¬ 
stitutions 


State 

capitol 

State 

university 

Agricultur¬ 
al college 

State nor¬ 
mal school 



92 


CONSTITUTION OF NORTH DAKOTA 


Deaf and 
dumb 
asylum 


Reform 

school 

State nor¬ 
mal school 


Insane 

asylum 


Soldiers’ 

home 


Blind 

asylum 


Industrial 

school 


normal school at Valley City, as aforementioned, fifty thousand 
(50,000) acres, and said lands are hereby appropriated to said 
institution for that purpose. 

Fifth. The deaf and dumb asylum at the city of Devils Lake, 
in the county of Ramsey. 

Note.—See Amendments, Article 5. 


Sixth. A state reform school at the city of Mandan, in the 
county of Morton. 

Seventh. A state normal school at the city of Mayville, in 
the county of Traill, and the legislative assembly in appor¬ 
tioning the grant of lands made by congress in the act 
aforesaid, for state normal schools, shall assign thirty thou¬ 
sand (30,000) acres to the institution hereby located at May¬ 
ville, and said lands are hereby appropriated for said pur¬ 
pose. 

Eighth. A state hospital for the insane and institution for 
the feeble minded in connection therewith, at the city of James¬ 
town, in the county of Stutsman. And the legislative assembly 
shall appropriate twenty thousand acres of the grant of lands 
made by the act of congress aforesaid for “other educational and 
charitable institutions’’ to the benefit and for the endowment of 
said institution. 

Note.—See Amendments, Article 6. 

Sec. 216. The following named public institutions are hereby 
permanently located as hereinafter provided, each to have so 
much of the remaining grant of one hundred and seventy thou¬ 
sand acres of land made by the United States for “other 
educational and charitable institutions,” as is alloted by law, 
viz: 

First. A soldiers’ home, when located, or such other chari¬ 
table institution as the legislative assembly may determine, at 
Lisbon, in the county of Ransom, with a grant of forty thousand 
acres of land. 

Second. A blind asylum, or such other institution as the 
legislative assembly may determine, at such place in the county 
of Pembina as the qualified electors of said county may deter¬ 
mine at an election to be held as prescribed by the legislative 
assembly, with a grant of thirty thousand acres. 

Third. An industrial school and school for manual train¬ 
ing, or such other educational or charitable institution as 
the legislative assembly may provide, at the town of Ellen- 
dale, in the county of Dickey, with a grant of forty thousand 
acres. 


PROHIBITION 


93 


Fourth. A school of forestry, or such other institution as the 
legislative assembly may determine, at such place in one of the 
counties of McHenry, Ward, Bottineau, or Rolette, as the electors 
of said counties may determine by an election for that purpose, 
to be held as provided by the legislative assembly. 

Fifth. A scientific school, or such other educational or chari¬ 
table institution as the legislative assembly may prescribe, at 
the city of Wahpeton, county of Richland, with a grant of 
forty thousand acres; provided, that no other institution of a 
character similar to any one of those located by this article shall 
be established or maintained without a revision of this con¬ 
stitution. 

Note.—This section amended by Articles 5 and 6, amendments to the 
constitution. 


ARTICLE XX—Prohibition 

Sec. 217. No person, association or corporation shall within 
this State, manufacture for sale or gift, any intoxicating liquors, 
and no person, association or corporation shall import any of the 
same for sale or gift, or keep or sell or offer the same for sale, 
or gift, barter or trade as a beverage. The legislative assembly 
shall by law prescribe regulations for the enforcement of the 
provisions of this article and shall thereby provide suitable 
penalties for the violation thereof. 


AMENDMENTS TO CONSTITUTION 
ARTICLE I (Adopted 1894) 

The legislative assembly shall have no power to authorize lot¬ 
teries or gift enterprises for any purpose and shall pass laws to 
prohibit the sale of lottery or gift enterprise tickets. 


ARTICLE II (Adopted 1900) 

Sec. 121. Every male person of the age of twenty-one years 
or upwards, belonging to either of the following classes, who 
shall have resided in the State for one year and in the county 
six months, and in the precinct ninety days next preceding any 
election, shall be a qualified elector at such election. 

First—Citizens of the United States. 


School of 
forestry 


Scientific 

school 


“Prohibi¬ 

tion” 


No lot¬ 
teries al¬ 
lowed 


Suffrage 
Who may 
vote? 


Citizens 


94 


CONSTITUTION OF NORTH DAKOTA 


Civilized 

Indians 


Board of 
pardons 


May par¬ 
don—when 


Assessing 
property 
for taxa¬ 
tion 


Second—Civilized persons of Indian descent, who shall have 
severed their tribal relations two years next preceding such 
election. 

Sec. 127. No person who is under guardianship, non compos 
mentis or insane, shall be qualified to vote at any election; nor 
any person convicted of treason or felony, unless restored to 
civil rights; and the legislature shall by law establish an educa¬ 
tional test as a qualification, and may prescribe penalties for 
failing, neglecting or refusing to vote at any general election. 

ARTICLE III (Adopted 1900) 

Sec. 76. The governor shall have power in conjunction with 
the board of pardons, of which the governor shall be ex officio a 
member and the other members of which shall consist of the 
attorney general of the State of North Dakota, the chief justice 
of the supreme court of the State of North Dakota, and two quali¬ 
fied electors who shall be appointed by the governor, to remit 
fines and forfeitures, to grant reprieves, commutations and par¬ 
dons after conviction for all offenses except treason and cases of 
impeachment; but the legislative assembly may by law regulate 
the manner in which the remission of fines, pardons, commuta¬ 
tions and reprieves may be applied for. Upon conviction of 
treason the governor shall have the power to suspend the execu¬ 
tion of sentence until the case shall be reported to the legislative 
assembly at its next regular session, when the legislative assembly 
shall either pardon or commute the sentence, direct the execution 
of the sentence or grant further reprieve. The governor shall 
communicate to the legislative assembly at each regular session 
each case of remission of fine, reprieve, commutation or pardon 
granted by the board of pardons, stating the name of the con¬ 
vict, the crime for which he is convicted, the sentence and its 
date and the date of remission, commutation, pardon or reprieve, 
with their reasons for granting the same. 

ARTICLE IV (Adopted 1900) 

Sec. 179. All property, except as hereinafter in this section 
provided, shall be assessed in the county, city, township, village 
or district in which it is situated, in the manner prescribed by 
law. The franchise, roadway, roadbed, rails and rolling stock 
of all railroads, and the franchise and all other property of all 
express companies, freight line companies, car equipment com¬ 
panies, sleeping car companies, dining car companies, telegraph 
or telephone companies or corporations operated in this State 
and used directly or indirectly in the carrying of persons, prop¬ 
erty or messages, shall be assessed by the state board of equaliza- 


AMENDMENTS 


95 


tion at their actual value, and such assessed value shall be appor¬ 
tioned to the counties, cities, towns, villages, townships and 
districts in which such railroad companies, express companies, 
sleeping car companies, dining car companies, telegraph and 
telephone companies are located, or through which they are 
operated, as a basis for the taxation of such property, in propor¬ 
tion to the number of miles of such property, within such coun¬ 
ties, cities, towns, villages, townships and districts, or over which 
any part of such property is used or operated within such coun¬ 
ties, towns, villages, townships and districts. But should any 
railroad allow any portion of its roadway to be used for any 
purpose other than the operation of a railroad thereon, such 
portion of its roadway, while so used, shall be assessed in the 
manner provided for the assessment of other real property. 

ARTICLE V (Adopted 1904) 

Subdivision 5 of section 215. 

Fifth. The school for the deaf and dumb of North Dakota, 
at the City of Devils Lake, in the county of Ramsey. 

ARTICLE VI (Adopted 1904) 

Subdivision 8 of section 215. 

Eighth. A state hospital for the insane at the city of James¬ 
town, in the county of Stutsman. And the legislative assembly 
shall appropriate twenty thousand acres of the grant of lands 
made by the act of congress aforesaid for “other educational 
and charitable institutions,” to the benefit and for the endow¬ 
ment of said institution, and there shall be located at or near 
the city of Grafton, in the county of Walsh, an institution for 
the feeble-minded, on the grounds purchased by the secretary 
of the interior for a penitentiary building. 

ARTICLE YII (Adopted 1904) 

Addenda to section 176: 

The legislative assembly may further provide that grain grown 
within the State and held therein in elevators, warehouses, and 
granaries may be taxed at a fixed rate. 

ARTICLE VIII (Adopted 1908) 

The moneys of the permanent school fund and other educa¬ 
tional funds shall be invested only in bonds of school corpora¬ 
tions or of counties, or of townships, or of municipalities within 
the State, bonds issued for the construction of drains under 
authority of law within the State, bonds of the United States 


Assessing 
railroads 
and other 
public 
service 
corpora¬ 
tions 


Deaf and 

dumb 

school 


Insane 


Feeble¬ 

minded 


Taxing 

grain 


Permanent 

school 

fund 

How invest 


96 


CONSTITUTION OF NORTH DAKOTA 


Sale of 
state 
lands 


Terms 


Supreme 

court 

Consist of 
five judges 


bonds of the State of North Dakota, bonds of other States; pro¬ 
vided, such States have never repudiated any of their indebted¬ 
ness, or on first mortgages on farm lands in this State, not exceed¬ 
ing in amount, one third of the actual value of any subdivision 
on which the same may be loaned, such value to be determined 
by the board of appraisal of school lands. 

ARTICLE IX (Adopted 1908) 

Sec. 158. Minimum Price of State Lands. No lands shall 
be sold for less than the appraised value and in no case for less 
than ten dollars per acre. The purchaser shall pay one fifth 
of the price in cash, and the remaining four fifths as follows: 
One fifth in five years, one fifth in ten years, one fifth in fifteen 
years and one fifth in twenty years, with interest at the rate of 
not less than six per centum, payable annually in advance. All 
sales shall be held at the county seat of the county in which the 
land to be sold is situate, and shall be at public auction and to 
the highest bidder, after sixty days’ advertisement of the same in 
a newspaper of general circulation in the vicinity of the lands to 
be sold, and one at the seat of government. Such lands as shall 
not have been especially subdivided shall be offered in tracts of 
one-quarter section, and those so subdivided in the smallest 
subdivisions. All lands designated for sale and not sold within 
two years after appraisal, shall be reappraised before they are 
sold. No grant or patent for any such lands shall issue until 
payment is made for the same; provided, that the lands con¬ 
tracted to be sold by the State shall be subject to taxation from 
the date of such contract. In case the taxes assessed against 
any of said lands for any year remain unpaid until the first Mon¬ 
day in October of the following year, then and thereupon the 
contracts of sale of such lands shall, at the election of the board 
of university and school lands, become null and void; and no 
such contract heretofore made shall be held void for nonpayment 
of taxes accruing on the lands described therein; provided, such 
taxes shall have been paid before this amendment takes effect; 
provided, further, that any school or institution land that may 
be required for townsite purposes may be paid for at any time 
and patent issued therefor. 

ARTICLE X (Adopted 1908) 

Sec. 89. The Supreme court shall consist of five judges, a 
majority of whom shall be necessary to form a quorum or pro¬ 
nounce a decision; but one or more of said judges may adjourn 
the court from day to day or to a day certain. 


AMENDMENTS 


97 


ARTICLE XI (Adopted 1910). Subdivision 6 of section 216 
Sixth. A state normal school at the city of Minot, in the 
county of Ward; provided, that no other institution of a char¬ 
acter similar to any of those located by this article shall be 
established or maintained without a revision of this constitution 

ARTICLE XII (Adopted 1910) 

Sec. 158. Sale of Public Lands. No land shall be sold for 
less than the appraised value, and in no case for less than ten 
dollars an acre. The purchaser shall pay one fifth of the price 
in cash and the remaining four fifths as follows: One fifth in five 
years, one fifth on or before the expiration of ten years, one fifth 
on or before the expiration of fifteen years, and one fifth on or 
before the expiration of twenty years, with interest at the rate 
of not less than five per cent per annum payable annually in 
advance; provided, that when payments are made before due 
they shall be made at an interest-paying date, and one year’s 
interest in advance shall be paid on all moneys so paid. All sales 
shall be held at the county seat of the county in which the land 
to be sold is situated, and be at public auction and to the 
highest bidder after sixty days’ advertisement of the same in a 
newspaper in general circulation in the vicinity of the land to be 
sold, and also published in a newspaper published at the county 
seat, and also in a newspaper published at the seat of govern¬ 
ment. Such lands as shall not have been especially subdivided 
shall be offered in tracts of one quarter section and those sub¬ 
divided, in the smallest subdivision. All lands designated for sale 
and not sold within two years after appraisal shall be reappraised 
before they are sold. No grant or patent for such lands shall issue 
until payment is made for the same; provided, that the lands 
contracted to be sold by the state shall be subject to taxation from 
the date of such contract. In case the taxes assessed against any 
of said lands for any year remain unpaid until the first Monday 
in October of the following year, then and thereupon the contract 
of sale for such lands, shall, if the board of university and school 
lands so determine, become null and void. Any lands under the 
provisions of section 158 of the constitution of the State of North 
Dakota that have heretofore been sold may be paid for, except as 
to interest, as provided herein, provided further, that any school 
or institution lands that may be required for town site purposes, 
may be paid for at any time and patent issued therefor. 

Civics N. Dak.—7 


State 

normal 

school 


Sale of 
state lands 


May pay 
cash 


PART III 


WORKINGS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 

CHAPTER IV 

THE EXECUTIVE 

''May God bless your country forever! May it have the glorious 
destiny to share with other nations the blessings of that liberty which 
constitutes its own happiness and fame! May your great example, 
noble Americans, be to other nations the source of social virtue; your 
power be the terror of all tyrants—the protector of the distressed; and 
your free country ever continue to be the asylum for the oppressed of 
all nations.” 

Written by Louis Kossuth, Governor of Hungary, at the place of 
his banishment, Broussa, Asia Minor, March 27, 1850. 


Introductory.—The branch of the Federal govern¬ 
ment which comes closest to the ordinary man is the 
executive branch. The work of the legislative branch 
is centralized in Congress at Washington. North 
Dakota is represented there, while Congress is in ses¬ 
sion, by fewer than half a dozen men, the two Sena¬ 
tors and the Representatives. The work of the judicial 
branch of the Federal government is carried on, of 
course, in every State, as well as in the one great Su¬ 
preme Court at Washington. Yet there is but one 
Federal judge residing in North Dakota, and giving 
his time to the Federal court work in this State. In 
contrast with this legislative and judicial work, the 
executive branch of our Federal government comes 

98 


THE EXECUTIVE 


99 


close to the daily lives of all our people. The executive, 
or, as it is also called, the administrative branch, is 
exemplified in the following familiar activities: the post 
office, common to all communities, and the rural free 
delivery of mail; the money in our pocket coined under 
the treasury department; the “ Yearbook of Agricul¬ 
ture,” found in many a prosperous farmhouse and 
furnished by the Department of Agriculture at Wash¬ 
ington. Even the army and navy are but parts of the 
great executive arm of the Federal government. View¬ 
ing the executive departments from the standpoint of 
numbers, we see that there are in all hundreds of 
thousands of men employed constantly in this one 
branch of our government. The other two branches 
together have fewer than a thousand men. So we now 
take up, first of all, a study of the executive branch. 

The Chief Executive, the President.—“The ex¬ 
ecutive power,” says the Constitution, “shall be vested 
in a President of the United States of America.” The 
chief assistants of the President are the nine cabinet 
officers whom he chooses (with the advice and consent 
of the Senate), but whom he can remove at pleasure. 
This provision places in the hands of the President great 
power coupled with great responsibility. For if a 
cabinet officer is not directing one of the nine great de¬ 
partments in the interest of the people, the President 
can and certainly ought to remove him. As expressed 
in the Constitution, the powers and duties of the Pres¬ 
ident are summed up in these simple words, “He shall 
take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” 


100 WORKINGS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 



Nomination and Election of President.—There is 

little said in the Constitution about the manner of 
nominating a President, although the twelfth amend¬ 
ment provides a way of electing him. Evidently, then, 
the people will nominate a President in any way that 
happens to suit them best, and this method may change 


The White House 

from time to time. The method now in use is a very 
simple one, and may be called nomination by a political 
party. The two steps are: (1) election, by a political 
party, of delegates in each State to the great national 
convention of that party; (2) nomination of the party’s 
candidate for President by this national convention. 
This convention is held in the summer of the “ presi¬ 
dential year,” and usually consists of about one thou¬ 
sand delegates. In the summer of 1908, for instance, 












THE EXECUTIVE 


101 


Mr. Taft was nominated by the Republican party 
in a convention in Chicago, and Mr. Bryan was nomi¬ 
nated by the Denver convention of the Democratic 
party. When the candidate has been “named,” that 
is, nominated, by his party, and the summer cam¬ 
paign speeches have all been made, then comes the 
November “election.” How and when is the president 
elected? Two answers must be given to this question: 

(1) The Constitution provides that presidential elec¬ 
tors shall be chosen in each State, equal to the whole 
number of Senators and Representatives which the 
State is entitled to have in Congress, and that these 
electors shall both nominate and elect a President. The 
State legislature may fix the manner of choosing this 
“Electoral College,” the name by which these electors 
are known; and Congress has fixed the time for 
choosing these electors as November, and the time for 
them to give their votes as January. According to this 
method, the President is elected in January. 

(2) The actual method now in practice is as follows: 
The voters in November elect certain presidential 
electors, but do not vote for a President. Yet since 
the President and the electors have both been nom¬ 
inated beforehand, by the political party, the voters 
expect the electors to vote for the party candidate. In 
other words, the Republican voter, in voting for a 
Republican elector in November, is really voting for 
the Republican nominee for President, for in no case 
in a hundred years has an elector voted contrary to 
expectations. Thus the January “election” is a mere 


102 WORKINGS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 

formality, the real election, by custom , occurring in 
November. The “electors” provided for in the Con¬ 
stitution, and now called the “ Electoral College/’ per¬ 
form about the same service that little messenger boys 
would perform if sent to Washington with the news 
of the November election. 

Qualifications, Terms, Salary.—The qualifications 
and term of office of the President have been set by the 
Constitution, and cannot be changed by Congress (see 
Chapter III). The salary of the President is set by 
Congress and has been changed twice; first from $25,000 
to $50,000 a year; and, in 1909, to $75,000 a year. This 
is considered a low payment as compared with salaries, 
sometimes ten times as large, paid by big business cor¬ 
porations. 

Powers and Duties.—We may classify the powers of 
the President under five heads as follows: 

Military Power .—War can be declared by Congress, 
not by the President; but the President is commander 
in chief of the army and navy. 

Treaty-making Power --Neither can the President 
alone make a treat}^ of peace, or other treaty, for the 
Senate shares this power with him. The President has 
power to make all treaties “by and with the advice and 
consent of the Senate.” 

Pardoning Power .—“He shall have power to grant 
reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United 
States, except in cases of impeachment.” A reprieve 
is a temporary postponement of the execution of a 
sentence. 



THE EXECUTIVE 


103 


Appointing Power. —The appointing power, like the 
treaty-making power, is shared by the Senate. In 
this manner the President appoints: (a) all Federal 
judges; (b) all commissioned officers in the army and 
navy; (c) his cabinet; (d) ambassadors and other foreign 
ministers; (e) postmasters (that is, of post offices pay¬ 
ing over SI,000 a year); (f) thousands of civil officials. 
The President has in his own hands complete power 
of removal of all these officials except judicial and 
military officials. Judges must be impeached by the 
legislative branch of government; military officers are 
court-martialed, that is, tried by other officers. 

Senatorial Courtesy. —In appointing an official for 
a position in some distant State, it is clearly impossible 
for the President to know much about the candidate 
for the office. Who shall be collector of customs at 
El Paso, Texas, or at Portal, North Dakota? Who 
shall be the postmaster at Burlington, Vermont, or 
at Provo, Utah? The Senator from that State knows 
local conditions and local candidates best. Through 
the “courtesy of the Senate” the candidate for such 
an appointive office within any State must be satisfac¬ 
tory to the Senators from that State, if they are of the 
majority party. The Senate will not ratify any other 
appointment. This means in practice (though not in 
theory) that very much of the President’s appointing 
power has gone into the hands of the Senate. 

The Spoils System and the Civil Service. —The “ spoils 
system,” introduced nearly a hundred years ago, was 
a system whereby persons were turned out of office or 


104 WORKINGS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 

appointed to office for purely political reasons, without 
regard to real merit or fitness. This system proved 
to be one of the great curses of our government. Little 
was done to remedy the spoils system till President 
Garfield had been assassinated by a disappointed office 
seeker. This was a fearful price to pay for the Civil 
Service Law of 1883, which established a Civil Service 
Commission and a classified civil service. Now thou¬ 
sands of positions are open to those who can pass a 
competitive examination. Once appointed, the suc¬ 
cessful candidate finds his position permanent, as long 
as he keeps up his fitness. The classified civil service 
list is being extended from time to time. Thousands of 
positions are now open to bright young men and women 
who are ambitious to cast their lot with the Federal 
government. Several times each year notices are pub¬ 
lished in the papers calling attention to the time and 
place of competitive examinations, as well as to the 
subjects included. Some can be passed by high school 
pupils, some only by college and university students. 

Legislative Power .—The President can influence legis¬ 
lation by convening Congress in special session or by 
'sending a message to Congress, or, most important 
of all, by his veto power. This is his power to re¬ 
fuse to sign a bill passed by Congress, and to express 
his objections to the bill in writing. Congress very 
rarely passes a bill over the President’s veto, although 
a two-thirds vote in each house can do it. In case the 
President neither vetoes nor signs a bill within ten days, 
it becomes a law without his signature, if Congress is 


THE EXECUTIVE 


105 


still in session. If Congress meanwhile has adjourned, 
however, the President may sign the bill within ten 
days and thus make it a law, or he may lay it aside— 
“pigeonhole it”—unsigned without giving any reasons, 
thus defeating it. This method of killing a bill by neg¬ 
lect is called the “ pocket veto.” 

Vice President.—The terms and qualifications of 
the Vice President are of course the same as those of 
the President, since the Vice President may be called 
at any time to the higher office. His salary is $12,000 
a year. His chief duty is to preside over the Senate. 
He has no vote there, except in the very rare case of a 
tie vote, in which case he casts the deciding vote himself. 

Cabinet.—The President’s cabinet consists of nine 
men in charge of the following departments: (1) Secre¬ 
tary of State; (2) Secretary of the Treasury; (3) Secre¬ 
tary of War; (4) Attorney-General; (5) Postmaster- 
General; (6) Secretary of the Navy; (7) Secretary of 
the Interior; (8) Secretary of Agriculture; (9) Secretary 
of Commerce and Labor. The salary of a cabinet 
officer is $12,000 a year. The work of these depart¬ 
ments is of great importance to every citizen. For 
under the general direction of the President and under 
the special direction of these nine men, our country 
must defend itself in time of war, must develop its 
agriculture, commerce, and industries in time of peace, 
and must at all times conserve its great natural re¬ 
sources. How this vast service is performed can now 
best be shown by a brief description of the work of each 
department. 


106 WORKINGS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 

State.—The Secretary of State must carry on all 
correspondence with foreign governments under the 
direction of the President. He should, therefore, be a 
man of great wisdom, of true diplomacy. If he is a 
man of tact and common sense, he may save his country 
from war in a time of crisis. Sometimes he must apolo¬ 
gize to foreign nations for wrongdoings of American 
officials, and sometimes he must demand apologies 
from foreign powers for their outrages and insults to 
Americans. Under the Secretary of State, there are 
two important branches of our foreign service: (1) The 
Diplomatic Service, which represents our official or 
diplomatic intercourse with foreign sovereigns, and is 
carried on through ambassadors (to the most important 
governments only) and ministers. (2) The Consular 
Service, which looks after American business and com¬ 
mercial interests all over the world, discovers new mar¬ 
kets, new products, new grains, etc., for the home coun¬ 
try, keeps a record of the arrival and departure of 
American ships and their cargoes, and is the guardian 
of American interests in all important commercial 
cities and towns of the world. There are some fifteen 
hundred persons in this service. Young men enter this 
service by passing a civil service examination given 
by the Department of State. 

Treasury.—The Secretary of the Treasury has gen¬ 
eral management of the government money—some 
hundreds of millions of dollars. This money is locked 
up for safe-keeping in government buildings known as 
treasury and subtreasurj" buildings, and very little 


THE EXECUTIVE 


107 


of it is deposited in banks about the country. The 
Secretary of the Treasury must also submit an annual 
“ budget” to Congress. This budget is a record of the 
receipts and expenses of the country for the past year, 
and an estimate of receipts and expenses for the 
coming year. He also has charge of the coinage of the 
gold, silver, nickel, and copper coins issued from the 
mint. He must supervise the seven thousand national 
banks. He has therefore much influence over the money 
and the banking of the country, and may exercise 
this influence, either for good or ill, over the money 
market of Wall Street itself. Of course a great many 
men are required in this department to assist the Secre¬ 
tary to carry out his vast duties. 

War.—The United States army consists of about 
70,000 men, the limit being 100,000 enlisted men. A 
military academy is provided at West Point (on the 
Hudson) for the training of officers. Here boys under 
twenty years of age (one boy for each congressional 
district) are sent to school at the expense of the Federal 
government. Most of our great commanders, such as 
Grant, Sherman, and Lee, were graduates of West 
Point. The Secretary of War supervises the organi¬ 
zation, equipment, and general movements of the 
army. 

Justice.—The Federal government finds it necessary 
to engage in much litigation, such as suits against 
railroads, against the great “trusts” so-called, like the 
oil, sugar, beef, tobacco, and other trusts. The At¬ 
torney-General is the government’s attorney. He must 


108 WORKINGS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 

collect and present the evidence and bring the suit 
before the Federal courts. He must also give official 
advice to the President and to other members of the 
cabinet, when asked. In law enforcement the Presi¬ 
dent must rely very much on his Attorney-General. 
For this reason the President should select as Attorney- 
General a lawyer who is known to be on the side of 
justice for all and not on the side of any special interests. 

Post Office.—There is but one large “business” in 
this country under government ownership and operation. 
That is the post office, in charge of the Postmaster- 
General. In some foreign countries the telegraph, the 
telephone, and even the railroads are owned by the 
government. The post office is not conducted as a 
money-making business, but as a means of serving the 
most people at the lowest cost. It almost, but not quite, 
pays expenses. The annual cost of the work under the 
post-office department is about $200,000,000 a year. 
There are about 60,000 post offices, and 120,000 men 
under this department, a larger force than that of the 
army and navy combined. 

How Postmasters Are Chosen .—The position of post¬ 
master even in a country place has much dignity and 
importance, while in the city it is looked upon as very 
desirable. The manner of securing this position de¬ 
pends upon the size of the office. Offices of the first, 
second, and third class are known as “presidential 
offices,” since such postmasters are appointed by the 
President. But as we have seen in our discussion of 
“senatorial courtesy,” the appointment is usually 


THE EXECUTIVE 


109 


made, in practice, by the Senator from the section of 
the State nearest the post office. Country and village 
offices where the annual receipts fall below SI,000 a 
year are known as fourth class post offices. The First 
Assistant Postmaster-Ceneral appoints postmasters in 
these offices, usually on the recommendation of some 
Congressman from that section of the State. In 1909, 
North Dakota had 1,033 post offices, of which 915 were 
fourth class and the remainder, 118, were presidential 
offices, divided as follows: 101 third class; 15 second 
class; 2 first class. The number of presidential offices 
is rapidly increasing in this State. 

Rates of Postage .—Mail matter is divided into four 
classes, of which letters constitute the first class, paying 
the highest postage, two cents an ounce. Publishers of 
newspapers and magazines send their matter out as 
“second class,” that is, at one cent a pound. Most of 
the mail carried in this country is of this class. Some 
great magazines, with a half million or a million sub¬ 
scribers, have several car loads of mail at each month’s 
issue. The third class of mail comprises books and 
other printed matter, on which the rate is one cent for 
two ounces. The fourth class includes merchandise, 
on which the rate is one cent an ounce. 

Navy.—The Secretary of the Navy has only general 
charge of the navy. Congress decides how many new 
battleships shall be built and how much money shall 
be spent each year for the men in the navy. “If you 
wish for peace, prepare for war” is the policy upon 
which the country is acting in the matter of building 


110 WORKINGS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 


up an expensive and powerful navy. A modern battle¬ 
ship costs a large sum of money,—a sum large enough 
to build a great university or to give five thousand 
young men a four-year course at our State University 
or Agricultural College. 

There is a Naval Academy at Annapolis for the train¬ 
ing of officers. Midshipmen, as the cadets are called, 
spend four years at the Naval Academy and two years 
at sea. As at West Point, nominations of cadets are 
mostly made by congressmen, sometimes after a com¬ 
petitive examination. 

Interior.—The Interior Department is noted for the 
number of important subjects coming under its charge. 
The most important are these: (1) Public lands; (2) Pen¬ 
sions; (3) Indians; (4) Patents; (5) Education. These 
topics we will examine separately. 

Public Lands— The discussions in recent years of 
the “conservation of our natural resources” has fo¬ 
cused attention on our public lands. It was the 
question of our public lands that brought on the famous 
Ballinger-Pinchot controversy of 1909-1910. Only two 
phases of the public land question can be mentioned 
here. 

The plan of surveying public lands now in use was 
suggested by Thomas Jefferson. The plan consists in 
surveying lines north and south a mile apart, and 
crossing these by east and west lines a mile apart. 
This forms a sort of vast checkerboard, each section 
of which is one mile square and contains 640 acres. 
The square six miles on a side is known as a congres- 


THE EXECUTIVE 


111 


sional township, since the survey is made by order 
of Congress. A parallel of latitude was taken as a 
base line north and south, and a meridian, called the 
“ principal meridian/ ’ was taken as a base line east and 
west. Rows or ranges of townships are numbered west 
from the standard parallel; townships are numbered 
north from the base line. For instance, Bismarck is 
located in range 80 west, and township 139 north. In 
other words, Bismarck is 480 miles west of the standard 
parallel, and 834 miles north of the 
standard base line. The sections in 
a township are numbered as shown 
in the diagram: 

The disposing of public lands is 
another important question. The 
United States still has about 
500,000,000 acres of public land 
undisposed of,—an area larger than ten states the size 
of North Dakota. But this land is mostly in the 
Rocky Mountains or in dry regions. The three prin¬ 
cipal ways of disposing of public lands heretofore have 
been these: grants to education; grants to railroads; 
grants to actual settlers—the most to actual set¬ 
tlers and the least to education. The actual settler 
gets his land now by “taking a claim/ 7 as it is com¬ 
monly called. He may take a quarter section as a 
homestead and obtain it free of charge by actually 
living on it for five years. Or he may take it as a 
preemption, and obtain it by living on it for fourteen 
months and paying a small price per acre, ranging 














112 WORKINGS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 

from $1.25 upwards, according to the nature of the 
claim. 

Pensions .—The largest single item of expense to the 
Federal government is pensions, which amounts to 
about $150,000,000 a year. Yet the Civil War oc¬ 
curred fifty years ago and very few of the old soldiers 
are now alive. The cost of maintaining a regiment of 
soldiers in our standing army is $1,000,000 a year, 
and hence our pension bill is large enough to support 
an army of one hundred and fifty regiments, or 150,000 
men,—an army twice the size of our standing army. 
All who were ever in the Civil War are entitled to pen¬ 
sions. In addition, Congress annually passes thousands 
of private pensions bills, usually in the nature of in¬ 
creases of pensions to those coming under the gen¬ 
eral law. The expense of this practice, though great, 
is not criticized so much as the loss of valuable time 
by congressmen who have great public questions to 
settle. 

Indians .—There are about 300,000 Indians left in 
this country. Most of them have now become citizens 
and are treated as such. The others are considered 
as wards , the Federal government being their guardian. 
Many millio'ns of dollars are spent to educate these 
wards, good Indian schools of all grades being provided. 
At present about one Indian in six is able to read, 
although a few have become distinguished scholars, 
and one an author of note. 

Patents .—Persons who have invented or discovered 
any new and useful machine, art, or manufacture, not 


THE EXECUTIVE 


113 


already known or patented, may secure a patent for a 
term of seventeen years. This private monopoly of 
an invention, as the patent may be called, is to reward 
the inventor and encourage useful inventions. The 
Americans are proving to be the most inventive people 
in the world. 

Education .—Education may be said to be left wholly 
to the States. The United States has no university or 
system of common schools. There is, however, a 
United States Commissioner of Education whose duty 
it is to study educational questions, to investigate the 
work being done by schools here and abroad, and to 
report his findings. His recommendations are very 
helpful to the teachers in every school. 

Agriculture.—Farmers in the past have generally 
been neither businesslike nor scientific. The Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture at Washington is trying to make 
farming both a business and a science. Investigators 
in great government laboratories—some of the largest 
in the world—are to be found here, studying plant dis¬ 
eases of all kinds, such as rust, smut, blight, etc., and 
also animal diseases, soil fertilizers, insects, noxious 
weeds, and so forth. Under this department are also 
found the following four important matters: Weather 
Bureau; Forestry Service , made famous by Gifford 
Pinchot; Good Roads Division; and Pure Food work. 
Under the Pure Food and Drug Act, June 30, 1906, 
foods and drugs entering into interstate commerce are 
inspected by Federal chemists to see whether they are 
adulterated contrary to law and to make sure that they 
Civics N. Dak.—8 


114 WORKINGS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 

are correctly labeled. If the article contains opium or 
cocaine, for instance, or any other dangerous drug, 
this fact must be stated plainty on the label. 

This department is ready to help any farmer by mail¬ 
ing to him, upon application, information in the form 
of “bulletins” on subjects of interest to him. Some 
of the most enterprising farmers secure copies of the 
large “Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture” 
by applying through their congressman for it. 

Department of Commerce and Labor.—To enable 
the Federal government to deal successfully with the 
great corporations and combinations of capital known 
as trusts, Congress created this department in 1903. 
It is divided into bureaus. The three most important 
bureaus into which this department is divided are: 

(1) Bureau of Corporations , which aids the Depart¬ 
ment of Justice in securing evidence against corpora¬ 
tions that are breaking Federal laws. Very thorough 
investigations are made, reports are published, and in 
this way “efficient publicity” is secured. 

(2) Bureau of Labor, which collects and publishes 
statistics on wages, cost of living, labor disputes, and, 
when invited to do so, helps in the settlement of 
strikes and lockouts. 

(3) The Census Bureau, which takes a national in¬ 
ventory every ten years, counting the people, record¬ 
ing the facts as to their age, education, property, 
nationality, and many other things. It takes many 
huge books to hold all this information. But the ordi¬ 
nary reader and the ordinary school can find all the. 


THE EXECUTIVE 


115 


most important facts in one small book, known as the 
<k Abstract of the Census /’ which is sent free upon 
application to this bureau. 

Questions on the Text 

1. Which branch of the Federal government comes closest to the 

ordinary citizen? Why? 

2. Which branch of government employs the most men? 

3. What does the Constitution say about the President’s powers 

and duties? About his nomination? 

4. Show how a President is nominated. 

5. What is the Electoral College? 

6. Is the President elected in January or in November? Give 

reasons for your answer. 

7. Do the people vote for a President in the United States? 

8. State the qualifications, term, and salary of the President; of 

the Vice President. 

9. What five classes of powers has the President? 

10. Discuss briefly the first three of these powers. 

11. Which powers does he share with the Senate? 

12. Show fully his powers of appointment and removal. 

13. How may bad judges be removed? Army and navy officers? 

14. Explain and illustrate “senatorial courtesy.” 

15. Explain the “spoils system” and the classified service. 

16. When and why was the Civil Service Commission created? 

17. What are the three phases of the President’s legislative power? 

Describe each. ♦ 

18. What is a pocket veto ”? 

19. What are the duties of the Vice President? 

20. Name all the departments in the cabinet. 

21. State briefly the nature of the work done by each department. 

22. What is a bureau? Name five. 

23. Name the two branches of our foreign service. Give the duties 

of each. 

24. What is a budget? By whom is it prepared? 

25. State the size of our army. What is West Point, and how can a 
. young man enter there? 


116 WORKINGS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 


26. What and where is the Naval Academy? 

27. How are postmasters chosen? 

28. How are rates of postage determined? Illustrate. 

29. Show how public lands are surveyed. Explain the terms base 

line; range. 

30. In what three ways have the public lands been largely disposed 

of? 

31. How much land is left? Where? 

32. Explain two ways of “taking a claim/’ 

33. How much is spent annually for pensions? Compare this with 

the cost of maintaining a standing army. What criticism, 
if any, can be made of this pension system. 

34. What has the Federal government to do with education? 

35. What good work is the Department of Agriculture doing? What 

four important matters now come under this department? 
In what way is the farmer helped? 

36. What is the youngest department? When and why was it 

formed? 

37. Give examples of its workings. What are its three most im¬ 

portant divisions and their work? 

Questions Suggested by the Text 

1. How were the early Presidents (from Washington to Jackson) 

nominated? 

2. What is an ideal method of nominating the President? Of 

electing him? 

3. Explain the fact that in 1888 the majority of the voters cast 

their vote in favor of one candidate for President, but at the 
same time another candidate was elected President. Could 
this ever happen again? 

4. Name the President; Vice President; members of the cabinet. 

5. What position was held by the Attorney-General before taking 

a place in the cabinet? Should you call him a corporation 
attorney? 

6. Make a list of the “presidential” post offices in North Dakota 

(See last “ Blue Book ”). 

7. Problem. Find the postage on one edition of some popular 

monthly magazine, preferably on one having a circulation 


THE EXECUTIVE 


117 


of from 400,000 to 1,000,000 copies. How many car loads 
of mail would this make? 

8. Give the location (quarter, section, range, and township) of 

your schoolhouse. Of your residence. 

9. Which received the larger share of the public lands, the rail¬ 

roads or the common schools? How many acres did each 
receive? 

10. Have you ever seen a bulletin issued by the Department of 
Agriculture? What is the proper method of obtaining copies 
of these bulletins? 


References 

Bryce, “American Common wealth” (1910 edition), Vol. I, Chs. 1-9. 

Hart, “Actual Government,” Chs. 15, 16, 23-25. 

The following Federal government publications are to be had free 
upon application: 

Census Bureau.—“Abstract of the Census,” “Special Census 
Bulletins.” 

Bureau of Statistics, Department of Commerce and Labor.— 
“Statistical Abstract of the United States.” 

Bureau of Corporations.—“Annual Report, Commissioner of 
Corporations.” 

Bureau of Labor.—“ Bimonthly Bulletin,” “Annual Report.” 

Department of Agriculture.—“Primer of Forestry,” “Bulletins 
on Good Roads,” bulletins on special farm topics. (Secure 
list from secretary of the department.) 


CHAPTER V 


CONGRESS 

“All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress 
of the United States.” U. S. Constitution. 

Almost every boy and girl knows that in December 
of each year, on the first Monday, Congress meets in 
the great capitol at Washington. In this chapter we 
will speak very briefly of the composition and of the 
work of Congress. 

Congress consists of two houses, the upper house or 
Senate, and the lower house or House of Representa¬ 
tives. 

Senate.—The Senate is composed of two Senators 
from each State, chosen by the legislature of the State. 
The qualifications, term, powers and duties of Senators 
we have already seen in Chapter III. The same salary 
is paid to a Senator as to a Representative, namely, 
$7,500 a year, plus a mileage fee of 20 cents a mile both 
ways, and an allowance of $125 a year for stationery. 

Only one third of the Senators are elected every two 
years, and since the term of office is six years, the ma¬ 
jority of Senators at any time have seen over two years 
of service. And furthermore, Senators are frequently 
reelected, serving twelve, eighteen, twenty-four, and 
even thirty years sometimes. This gives the Senate 


CONGRESS 


119 



its “ dignity and stability/’ and makes it a check on the 
House of Representatives. Unlike the House, the Sen¬ 
ate has for many years chosen its own standing com¬ 
mittees. There are fifty or sixty of these committees, 
the finance committee being the most important. This 
was for many years in charge of Senator Aldrich of 
Rhode Island. The presiding officer of the Senate is 

the Vice President of 
the United States. 

House of Represen¬ 
tatives.—The House 


Senate Chamber 

now numbers about 
four hundred and 
twenty-five men. Their 
qualifications we have 
already considered in 
Chapter III. The House of Representatives 

short term, two years, 

makes the House a changeable body. A serious criti¬ 
cism of the House is that the successful candidate for 
a seat in it must make his campaign and be elected 
thirteen months before he takes his place. Thus the 
issues he fought for may become stale before he has 
a chance to take his seat in Congress. For instance, 
the members elected in November, 1914, take their 












120 WORKINGS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 

seats in December 1915, in the first session of the 64th 
Congress. 

The Speaker .—The House elects one of its own mem¬ 
bers as presiding officer, and he is then known as the 
Speaker of the House, or simply “Mr. Speaker.” He 
is a very powerful person for two reasons: he has much 
to do with appointing committees and referring bills 
to committees; he is a presiding officer and hence with¬ 
out his recognition no member can speak or make a 
motion. He sometimes asks an unfriendly member 
why he rises on the floor. If the member’s purpose 
does not suit the Speaker, he merely replies, “The mem¬ 
ber is not recognized for that purpose.” Thus the 
member finds himself effectually “bottled up.” Yet 
with all his great power, the Speaker is the servant of 
the majority of the House. He only bottles up men of 
the minority side. He is elected by the majority, by 
whom he can be deposed any hour of any day, a new 
man being elected in his place. The majority make 
the rules of the House—good or bad—and no rule or 
combination of rules can stifle the will of the majority. 
The work of the House in lawmaking is discussed under 
the subject of Congress below. 

Congress.—The life of a Congress is two years. 
Each Congress is designated by its number, as the 50th, 
the 60th, the 70th, etc. Each Congress has two regular 
sessions, both beginning in December. Th e first session 
often lasts till late into the following summer, and hence 
is called the “long session.” The second session must 
end March 4, and hence is called the “short session.” 


CONGRESS 


121 


The powers of Congress were enumerated in Chap¬ 
ter III. We may now classify these powers as follows: 

Taxing Power .—Congress spends money, sometimes 
very freely, and has the power of taxing the people in 
order to obtain this money. This is the most impor¬ 
tant power of Congress. How much money is raised, 
and how, and for what objects it is expended, will be 
discussed in the chapter on Money and Finance (Chap¬ 
ter VII). The revenue bills, especially protective tariff 
bills, have been the occasion of some of the famous 
debates in Congress. 

Commercial Powers .—The Constitution gives to Con¬ 
gress alone the power to “ regulate” interstate com¬ 
merce, that is, commerce which crosses State lines. 
Since nearly all railroads, express companies, telegraph 
lines, and other agencies for carrying persons, property, 
or messages cross State lines, the regulation of these 
things must be by Congress and not by the separate 
States. The actual workings of this power over busi¬ 
ness as exercised by Congress are discussed in Chapter 
VIII. 

Territorial Powers .—Congress has power to admit 
new States into the Union, and no territory can be¬ 
come a State until admitted by Congress. Our vari¬ 
ous island possessions, known as “ dependencies” or 
“colonies,” are also under the control of Congress. 

Miscellaneous Powers .—Congress has, in addition, 
many miscellaneous powers among which are powers: 
to borrow money; coin money; establish post offices; 
grant patents and copyrights; declare war; raise and 


122 WORKINGS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 

support armies and navies; make laws governing the 
militia. 

Express and Implied Powers. —Powers are classified 
as “express powers” when they are actually expressed 
in the Constitution, and as “implied powers” when 
they are not expressed but only implied in the Consti¬ 
tution. For instance, the Constitution does not con¬ 
tain the word bank, yet Congress has power to establish 
a bank and has twice done so. The implied powers 
of the Constitution cannot, of course,' be enumerated 
or classified. They all fall under this law: “Congress 
may make all laws which are necessary and proper for 
carrying out the Constitution.” 

Process of Lawmaking.—In a recent session of Con¬ 
gress lasting 130 days, there were introduced 29,000 
bills. Since Congress consists of about 500 men (about 
400 in one house and 100 in the other), it is manifestly 
impossible that each bill shall be debated; nor can each 
bill even be read by every member. So great is the 
number of bills indeed that members sometimes vote 
on a bill without first reading it. The problem is, to 
consider how this large assembly of men can give proper 
consideration to each one of these thousands of bills. 
In other words, what is the process of lawmaking? 
Contrast the constitutional theory of lawmaking with 
the present practice of lawmaking. The theory of the 
Constitution was that each bill introduced in either 
House should receive full discussion there, and, if 
worthy, should be sent on to the other House for a 
second scrutiny, that any defects might be corrected. 


CONGRESS 


123 


Thus amended and improved by discussion, the success¬ 
ful bill would go before the President for his signature 
or veto. If vetoed, two thirds of each house could pass 
it over his veto. The practice of lawmaking to-day, 
however, is entirely different from the process just de¬ 
scribed. The principal process now is the sifting out 
of the undesirable measures. This is done by the Com¬ 
mittee System of Congress. Before summarizing the 
separate steps in legislation, we must briefly describe 
this system. 

The Committee System of Congress .—For sifting the 
many thousands of bills, there are some fifty or sixty 
standing committees in each house. To some one of 
these standing committees every bill is referred. The 
bill is one, of course, of many bills before the committee, 
for most of which “death in committee” is the sad 
fate. The committee may hold open meetings and have 
hearings from lobbyists and from enemies of the bill. 
Members interested approach the committee and make 
their arguments for or against the bill, for they know 
that the House itself will have neither time nor inclina¬ 
tion to listen. The committee can amend the bill; can 
report it back to the House with the recommendation 
“that it do pass,” or “that it do not pass”; can delay 
reporting till late in the session, or can let the bill die 
from mere neglect. In this way the bills are screened 
and sifted, nine tenths of all bills introduced meeting 
their death in committee. This death a majority of 
them, no doubt, deserve. The committee meetings 
are, as a rule, secret. No record is kept of their pro- 


124 WORKINGS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 

ceedings, and hence the public does not know what goes 
on there. 

Criticism .—The committee system has both good and 
evil points. The chief evils are: It does away with 
debate in the houses, except on a few measures. It 
leads to certain forms of corruption and develops a 
class of lobbyists. It places power, but not responsi¬ 
bility, in the hands of a small committee. This is a bad 
thing for the nation, for we do not know what our serv¬ 
ants—our representatives—are doing, and we do not 
know where to place the praise for a good bill or the 
blame for a bad bill. The chief advantage of the sys¬ 
tem is that it kills off worthless bills. In this way only 
can Congress handle a large number of bills. As it is, 
there are too many bills to be debated in the House, 
many of them being purely “private ’ 1 and clearly out 
of place before Congress. 

Summary of the Process of Lawmaking .—The follow¬ 
ing are the principal steps usually followed by a bill in 
the process of becoming a law: (1) “Introduced” by 
being presented to the clerk of the House. At this stage 
the bill is labeled with its number, its title, and the 
name of the member introducing it, but it is not before 
the House for consideration. (2) “Reading” of the 
bill by the clerk. He reads only the title of the bill. 
This is known as the “first” reading. (3) “Referred” 
to the appropriate committee by the presiding officer 
(the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Pres¬ 
ident of the Senate). The bill is now said to be “com¬ 
mitted.” (4) Before the committee. The bill is con- 


CONGRESS 


125 


sidered (or neglected) by the committee in charge of it, 
and if not killed, is in time reported back for House 
action. (5) Before the House. The House has an 
informal session, called “the committee of the whole.” 
The bill is discussed. It has a “second” and “third” 
reading, one of which must be in full. (6) Vote, “Shall 
the bill pass?” (7) The bill when passed and signed 
by the presiding officer goes to the other house where 
the process just described is substantially repeated 
and (8) it is signed by the President, a course taking 
usualty weeks or months. To get a bill “on the cal¬ 
endar,” that is, on the House program for the day, 
is a very difficult undertaking. This is stage (5) as 
described above. Only a small per cent of the bills 
reach this stage. The fifty or sixty committees have 
sifted them out. However, the reader should always 
remember that this long, slow, tedious program de¬ 
pends on the rules of the House, and that incase of emer¬ 
gency the majority can set aside these rules and act 
promptly. Thus when war was declared against Spain 
in 1898, and President McKinley needed $50,000,000 
at once for the army and navy, a bill providing this 
amount was introduced, and passed both houses of 
Congress in two hours’ time. 

Questions on the Text 

1. What is the composition of Congress? When does Congress 

meet? 

2. What is the composition of the Senate? 

3. State the salary of a Senator and a Representative. 

4. How are congressmen elected? 


126 WORKINGS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 

5. What gives to the Senate dignity and stability? 

6. How are committees chosen in the Senate and in the House? 

7. Name one important Senate committee. 

8. What is the composition of the House? 

9. When do new members take their seat? 

10. Discuss fully the powers of the Speaker of the House. 

11. Give arguments for the Speakers’ great powers. 

12. What is the life of a Congress? What is a “long session”? 

“a short session”? 

13. Name twenty powers of Congress. (See Constitution, Art. 1, 

sec. 8, Art. 4, secs. 3 and 4, Art. 5.) 

14. Name twenty prohibitions on Congress. (See Constitution, 

Art. 1, sec. 9, also Amendments 1-10.) 

15. Classify the powers of Congress (four classes) and discuss 

each class. 

16. Classify the powers of Congress on the basis of how the power is 

stated in the Constitution. Define and illustrate each class. 

17. Describe the process of lawmaking: (1) the difficulties confront¬ 

ing lawmakers; (2) the theory of the Constitution; (3) the 
practice to-day. 

18. Describe fully the committee system. 

19. Give a summary of all the steps in lawmaking. 

20. Can you cite an exception to the slow process of lawmaking as 

described above? 

Questions Suggested by the Text 

1. What is the number of the present Congress? Is it in its first 

or second session? 

2. Quote the constitutional provision on the taxing power. 

3. “The power to tax is the power to destroy.” Give one ex¬ 

ample of this rule. 

4. Name the two Senators from North Dakota. 

5. Name the Representatives from North Dakota? 

6. Name the present Speaker of the House. 

7. Who is now President of the Senate? 

8. Who is chairman of the Finance Committee of the Senate? 

9. Who is chairman of the Committee of Wavs and Means of the 

House? 


CONGRESS 


127 


10. Describe the making of some great tariff act (such as the 
McKinley Act of 1890, the Dingley Act of 1897, or the 
Payne-Aldrich Act of 1909). 

References 

Bryce, “American Commonwealth” (1910 edition), Vol. I, Chs. 10- 

21 . 

Hart, “Actual Government,” Chs. 12-14. 


CHAPTER VI 


THE JUDICIARY 

“Marshall was, of course, only one among seven judges, but his ma¬ 
jestic intellect and the elevation of his character gave him such an 
ascendency that he found himself only once in a minority on any con¬ 
stitutional question. His work of building up and working out the 
Constitution was accomplished not so much by the decisions he gave 
as by the judgments in which he expounded the principles of these de¬ 
cisions, judgments which for their philosophical breadth, the luminous 
exactness of their reasoning, and the fine political sense which pervades 
them have never been surpassed and rarely equaled by the most famous 
jurists of modern Europe or of ancient Rome.” Bryce, “American 
Commonwealth” (1910 edition), Yol. I, Ch. 33. 

Federal Judges. —All Federal judges are appointed 
for life by the President, with the consent of the Sen¬ 
ate. This life term of office is given them in order to 
make them independent of all political parties and 
popular waves of opinion, and to give them courage 
to render fearless and just decisions. They are able 
to pronounce the opinions they have formed “with¬ 
out fear, favor, or partiality. ” 

Federal Courts. —The Constitution creates one Fed¬ 
eral court, the Supreme Court. It places on Congress 
the responsibility of creating, as the country develops, 
such inferior Federal courts as are needed. We now 
have four kinds of Federal courts, as follows: 

Supreme Court. —This court consists of nine mem¬ 
bers; one is called the Chief Justice, and the other 
eight are called Associate Justices. Our most famous 

128 




THE JUDICIARY 


129 


Chief Justice was John Marshall, a warm friend of 
George Washington, who was for thirty-four years at 
the head of the Supreme Court. The salary of the 
Chief Justice is $13,000 per annum; of the other jus¬ 
tices, $12,500. The Supreme Court sits only in Wash¬ 
ington, and hence lawyers who are licensed to practice 



Supreme Court in Session 


before this court must make the trip to Washington 
to present their cases. The jurisdiction of this court 
is both original and appellate: original in those cases 
which begin in this court; appellate in those cases which 
are appealed to it from the lower courts. The original 
jurisdiction of the Supreme Court extends only to 
cases in which a State is a party, and to cases involv¬ 
ing ambassadors and consuls. 

Circuit Courts of Appeals.—A “Circuit Court” was 
known in ancient times, for we read in the Bible that 
“Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. And 
Civics N. Dak.—9 



















130 WORKINGS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 

he went from year to year in circuit to Bethel and 
Gilgal and Mizpeh, and judged Israel in all those 
places.” In the United States there are now nine 
circuits, which is one circuit for each justice of the 
Supreme Court. But the Supreme Court justice no 
longer has any time to go “in circuit,” and hence circuit 
judges, at least two judges for each circuit, are ap¬ 
pointed. The judges constitute the so-called “ Circuit 
Courts of Appeals.” These courts have jurisdiction 
over certain important cases appealed from lower 
courts, provided by Congress. The Supreme Court was 
at one time four years behind with the cases awaiting 
trial, and was steadily getting farther behind. So Con¬ 
gress created this court to hear and end Federal cases 
before they get to the Supreme Court. Some cases, 
however, still are appealed from this court to the Su¬ 
preme Court. 

District Courts. —There are about ninety Federal 
District Courts in the United States. Each State either 
constitutes one judicial district (as does North Dakota), 
or, if the population is large enough, is divided into 
two, three, or four districts. A District Court is held 
in each district by the resident judge or by a judge 
temporarily 11 trading places” with him from some other 
district. Some important districts even have two 
judges, each holding court. These courts have original 
jurisdiction of most of the common cases coming under 
Federal laws, such as bankruptcy, offenses on Indian 
reservations such as selling liquor to Indians, post office 
robberies, and so on. 


THE JUDICIARY 


131 


Court of Commerce.—The youngest of the Federal 
courts is the Court of Commerce, created by Con¬ 
gress in 1910 to deal with “common carriers,” engaged 
in interstate commerce. By “common carriers” are 
meant railroad companies, express and sleeping car 
companies, telegraph and telephone companies; in 
short, all persons or corporations engaged in the trans¬ 
portation of passengers or property or in the trans¬ 
mission of messages. This court is composed of five 
judges, selected by the Chief Justice of the Supreme 
Court, from the circuit judges for a period of five years. 
One judge retires each year from the Court of Commerce 
and resumes his duties as circuit judge. This court has 
been created to see that common carriers fulfill their 
duty to the public in every way, but especially in keep¬ 
ing their charges just and reasonable. This court has 
power, to impose a fine of $5,000 on the offender, or 
to sentence him to jail for two years. “The jurisdic¬ 
tion of the Commerce Court over cases of the fore¬ 
going classes shall be exclusive.” An appeal may be 
taken to the Supreme Court. 

Jurisdiction of the Federal Courts.—It must be 
borne in mind that questions affecting the internal 
affairs of a State only—as do most questions that 
arise—must begin and end in State courts. According 
to this rule, we see that the jurisdiction of the Federal 
courts extends to the following five matters : 

(1) Cases affecting ambassadors, other public minis¬ 
ters, and consuls. 

(2) Cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction. 


132 WORKINGS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 

(3) Controversies in which the United States is in¬ 
volved. 

(4) Controversies between States. 

(5) “All cases in law and equity arising under this 
Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties 
made or which shall be made, under their authority. ” 

Equity .—Federal courts are courts of law and also 
courts of equity. Law provides a cure after the act has 
been done; equity provides a means of prevention. 
Since prevention is better than cure, both in law and 
in medicine, the equity power of the courts will no 
doubt continue to be used. The injunction is the most 
common form of an equity case. To illustrate: A band 
of desperate men, striking against the railroad com¬ 
pany, are about to bum a mail train. This would be 
a damage difficult, if not impossible, to repair. But 
where “irreparable damage” is threatened, a court of 
equity will grant an injunction. So the railroad com¬ 
pany goes to a Federal judge and secures an injunction, 
that is, an order from the court for the men to stay 
away from the train. If now the men destroy the train, 
or even approach it, they are guilty, not of destruction 
of property, but of “contempt of court.” For this 
offense they can promptly be arrested, brought before 
the judge, and sentenced to jail by him for violating 
his order. He makes the order, tries the case, and 
punishes the men. In short, he is lawmaker, judge, 
and jury. He may send men to jail for a year for 
violating his order. In the case just described, it is 
clearly better to prevent the mischief from being done 


THE JUDICIARY 


133 


than to try to catch and punish the men afterwards 
for it. If our judges were not an upright set of men, 
they would doubtless abuse this great power of the 
injunction. 

Workings of the Courts .—The first duty of the courts 
is to determine what is justice for those who maintain 
that they have been deprived of some right. The one 
who is suffering, as he thinks unjustly, brings his case 
into court. Or if a person or a corporation has com¬ 
mitted an offense against the Federal government, that 
government is the sufferer, and will bring the matter 
into court. If the government loses the case in the first 
court, the matter ends there. There is no appeal. If, 
however, the person or corporation loses in one court 
he may appeal to the next court above. In this way the 
person who is suffering or thinks he is suffering has 
every benefit of the doubt. In order to make it im¬ 
possible (or almost impossible) to convict an innocent 
man, we have made it possible for a guilty one to 
escape. 

The second duty of the Federal courts is to judge as 
to the constitutionality of laws that come before them 
in concrete cases. The work of the courts on constitu¬ 
tional questions is to pass judgment, not on the wisdom 
of the law, or the benefits or evils of the law, but on 
the sole question of the constitutionality of the law. 
Is the law according to the Constitution? If a law is 
found to be contrary to the Constitution, no matter 
how beneficial the law may be, or how much the coun¬ 
try may need it, no matter if it has been passed by the 


134 WORKINGS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 

four hundred members of Congress and signed by the 
President, the Supreme Court must declare it null and 
void. For instance, here are some of the laws which 
neither Congress nor the States can pass: 

(1) Laws impairing the obligation of contracts. 

(2) Laws depriving any person of life or liberty with¬ 
out due process of law. 

(3) Laws depriving any person of property without 
due process of law. 

The Dartmouth College Case.—The above principle 
is illustrated in the famous lawsuit involving Dart¬ 
mouth College. Just before the Revolutionary War 
a corporation in New Hampshire secured a charter 
containing certain privileges. Later the State tried to 
change the charter slightly. The case came before 
the Supreme Court, and is known as the Dartmouth 
College case. The court held that the charter was a 
contract; that the State could never change it, for that 
would be impairing the obligation of a contract. This 
was a very important decision. Since that day many 
States have given charters to corporations containing 
“franchises” (that is, certain definite, often valuable 
privileges), and have later tried to modify the charters, 
or levy a special tax on them, or regulate them in the 
interest of the public. The Supreme Court has, in 
such cases, held that a corporation is a person; that 
its franchise is a contract; that the contract cannot 
be impaired; that the person cannot be deprived of 
his property without due process of law. If a gas 
company, for instance, happens to have a perpetual 


THE JUDICIARY 


135 


franchise in a city, it can never be successfully regulated 
by the city or State. 

Hence many State and Federal laws aiming to regu¬ 
late corporations fall to the ground when brought be¬ 
fore the Supreme Court. The State or city granting 
the franchise to the corporation must see to it that the 
franchise contains a provision for future regulation. 
Then the “obligation” of the contract will not be “ im¬ 
paired” by wholesome regulation. 


Questions on the Text 

1. State the term of office and manner of appointment of all Fed¬ 

eral judges. 

2. Name some results of this system. 

3. Name five Federal courts. 

4. Describe the Supreme Court, its composition and jurisdiction. 

5. Name one great chief justice. 

6. Explain “original” and “appellate” jurisdiction. 

7. Discuss Circuit Courts of Appeals: number of courts; compo¬ 

sition; why formed. 

8. Discuss the District Court: number and composition; juris¬ 

diction. 

9. What is the youngest Federal court, and when was it formed? 

Its purpose? Its composition? 

10. Define “common carriers.” 

11. To what five things does the jurisdiction of Federal courts ex¬ 

tend? 

12. Can any other matter be brought before these courts? 

13. What is equity? Give one example. Show the benefit and 

the danger of the equity power of the courts. 

14. What, in general, are the two chief duties of our Federal courts? 

15. When may appeals be taken? Criticize our present practice. 

16. What governs the Supreme Court in deciding on the con¬ 

stitutionality of a law? 


136 WORKINGS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 


17. Name three “laws” which would be unconstitutional. 

18. Give an account of the Dartmouth College case. 

19. What is a franchise? How is it protected? Why is it so hard 

to regulate? 

Questions Suggested by the Text 

1. Name the present members of the Supreme Court. 

2. Name the district judge of North Dakota. 

3. In which judicial circuit is North Dakota? 

4. What candidate for President of the United States was once 

cast into jail for violating an injunction? 

5. Give an account of the Buck Stove and Range case (or any im¬ 

portant injunction case). 

6. Discuss the McCulloch versus Maryland case. 

7. Give an account of the life of John Marshall. 

8. Discuss some case settled by the Commerce Court. 

9. Give one example of an attempt to “impair the obligation of a 

contract.” 

10. Is property protected by the court, or by the Constitution as 
construed by the courts? 

References 

Hart, “Actual Government,” Ch. 17. 

Bryce, “ American Commonwealth” (1910 edition), Vol. I, Chs. 22- 
26, 31-35. 



CHAPTER VII 


FINANCE AND MONEY 


“Whatever else it may be, the government is the power which 
taxes. ... If we are in any doubt as to what is really the govern¬ 
ment of some particular country, we cannot do better than to observe 
what person or persons in that country are clothed with authority to 
tax the people.” Fiske, “Civil Government in the United States,” 
p. 7. Quoted in Daniels, “Public Finance,” p. 1. 

Finance.—One of the most interesting studies con¬ 
cerning our government is one known as Public Fi¬ 
nance. This is a study of the income and the expendi¬ 
tures of our country. 

Federal Expenditures.—The Federal government is ’ 
now spending over $1,000 a minute, night and day, 
385 days in the year. This means about $1,500,000 
a day, and more than $500,000,000 a year. For what 
objects is this money spent? From what sources does 
it come? Let us see. 

Objects of Expenditure.—The three largest objects 
of expenditure, and the average annual outlay for each 
are as follows: 


$150,000,000 

140,000,000 

120 , 000,000 


1. Pensions 

2. Army . 

3. Navy 


These outlays use up most of the money. Among the 

137 





138 WORKINGS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 
very important objects of expenditure, which cost rel¬ 


atively very little, are these four: 

1. Department of Commerce and Labor . $15,000,000 

2. Post Office . 15,000,000 

3. Department of Agriculture . 15,000,000 

4. Ambassadors and Consuls . 4,000,000 


The post office, it will be recalled, is almost self- 
supporting, most of the expense being met by the sale 
of stamps. The actual shortage (or deficit, as it is 
called) is made up each year by an appropriation by 
Congress. 

A careful study of the two preceding tables will show 
the reader what a vast amount we are spending on 
account of past wars, and as preparation for future 
wars, and how small an amount for the peaceful de¬ 
velopment of commerce and agriculture and the gen¬ 
eral welfare of the country. 

Source of Income.—Who pays the Federal taxes to 
meet these huge expenses? It is evident that the total 
expenditures above described amount to $6 a head 
per year for every man, woman, and child in the 
country,—an average of $30 for a family of five per¬ 
sons. Most of this income is from four simple articles 
consumed by rich and poor alike. They are sugar, 
beer, whisky, and tobacco. 

The Federal Tax 


$1 worth of sugar . $0.25 tax 

$1 worth of tobacco . 0.20 “ 

1 gallon of beer. 0.03 “ 

1 gallon of whisky . 1.10 “ 










FINANCE AND MONEY 


139 


Therefore those families which consume the most sugar, 
tobacco, and liquors, whether they are rich or poor, are 
paying the most Federal tax. Since poor men usually 
have more children than rich men, it is very likely that 
the poor man consumes more sugar than the rich man 
and hence is bearing more of the burden of this tax. 
Likewise, the poor man who uses much tobacco or 
liquor is contributing an unequal share of the tax. 
Each is not paying according to his ability to pay. 

A further word must be said about the two classes 
of Federal taxes. The government levies no direct tax 
as does the State, city, county, township, and school 
district. Government taxes are called indirect taxes, 
and are of two kinds, namely, (1) tariff, and (2) inter¬ 
nal revenue. The tariff is on many thousands of things 
that are imported, such as sugar, clothing, machinery, 
knives, watches, diamonds, steel, lumber, coal, flour, 
meat, breakfast foods, etc. Internal revenue is derived 
from an “excise duty” on liquors and tobacco, prin¬ 
cipally. In the year 1908, these two sources produced 
revenue as follows: 

1. Tariff. $286,113,130 

2. Internal Revenue. 251,711,126 

Criticisms. —The main arguments for this Federal 
system of indirect taxation are these: It is simple and 
easy to collect, and brings in plenty of revenue; it costs 
only two or three per cent to collect it. The main 
arguments against it are these: It makes the poor man 
pay as much as the rich man, and sometimes much 




140 WORKINGS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 

more, and is therefore unjust; it causes waste and 
extravagance on the part of the government, no tax¬ 
payer realizing keenly enough the drain on his own 
pocket. As to the tariff, especially the “protective” 
tariff, on the one hand it is contended that it builds 
up American industries in the face of foreign rivals, 
and is therefore a good thing. On the other hand it 
is maintained that it gives special favors to a few at 
the expense of the many, thus forming a privileged 
class who in turn corrupt the government. 

Money.—The “money question” is one of the big 
questions before our people. In 1792 the government 
began to coin money for the first time. We started 
with the “double standard” at a ratio of 15 to 1. That 
is, 15 ounces of silver were considered worth one ounce 
of gold. The “double standard,” or bimetallism, as 
it is also called, means the use of two metals, not only 
as money, but also as standards of value, and this 
further implies the free and unlimited coinage of both 
metals. At the present time, after over a hundred 
years of experimentation, we have, in common with 
the rest of the world, the single gold standard, with 
free and unlimited coinage of gold at the ratio of 16 
to 1; and in addition we have a limited coinage of 
silver, nickel, and copper. All are considered good 
“money,” and all can be exchanged, if desired, for 
gold. The coinage of these minor metals is limited to 
what is considered the actual needs of the country. 
Hence we have coined, since the starting of the mint, 
three billion dollars in gold and one billion dollars in 


FINANCE AND MONEY 


141 


silver. Only half of these amounts has stayed in this 
country. 

During the Civil War the United States issued as 
a war measure a kind of paper money known as 
United States notes or “greenbacks/' But since the 
government redeems these on demand in gold, they 
too circulate everywhere. Yet they are not real 
money. 



United States Mint, Philadelphia 


There was started during the Civil War, as another 
temporary makeshift, our system of national banks. 
These banks, of which there are now seven thousand 
in existence, must exchange a certain amount of their 
money for United States bonds, which are left on 
deposit with the Treasurer at Washington. In ex¬ 
change for these bonds the banks are allowed to issue 
paper money known as national bank notes or “na¬ 
tional currency.^ These notes are not real money, 
but since both the banks and the governments are 









142 WORKINGS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 


pledged to redeem them in real money, they circulate 
everywhere like any other money. 

All paper money as well as all coins other than gold 
may be defined as credit money. Credit is defined as 
a promise to pay money. On this basis our money 
system is as follows: 

Money in the United States, 1908 

Real Money: 

1. Gold. $1,618,133,492 

Credit Money: 

2. Silver. $563,277,812 

3. Nickel and Copper. 147,355,783 

4. Greenbacks. 346,681,016 

5. National Bank Notes. 782,976,619 

$1,840,291,230 

$3,458,424,722 

For the convenience of those people who do not like 
to carry heavy silver dollars and valuable gold coin in 
their pockets, the government places these coins on de¬ 
posit in the Treasury buildings and issues “ silver certi¬ 
ficates” and “gold certificates” to exactly the same 
amount. Most of the silver and gold are thus kept 
safe on deposit, while the people use the “certificates.” 

Questions on the Text 

1. What is meant by public finance? 

2. How much is the Federal government expending annually? 

3. Name seven objects of expenditure. Classify them in the 

order of their size. State the amount of each. 

4. Compare war expenditures with peace expenditures. 

5. What are the chief sources of income? 

6. What is the Federal tax on the following: $1 worth of sugar; 

$1 worth of tobacco; 1 gallon each of whisky and beer? 








FINANCE AND MONEY 


143 


7. Is the Federal tax paid by the rich and the poor according to 

their respective abilities? 

8. Is the Federal tax direct or indirect? 

9. What are the two principal kinds of Federal taxes? 

10. Which kind applies to the most articles? 

11. Give examples of each tax. State the income from each in 1908. 

12. What are the main arguments for and against our revenue 

system? 

13. Explain “double standard”; “16 to 1.” 

14. Give a short history of our money since 1792, naming five kinds 

of money. 

15. Define credit. 

16. How much money is there in the country to-day? 

17. Explain the nature and purpose of gold and silver certificates. 

Questions Suggested by the Text 

1. Estimate the amount of tax paid to the Federal government by 

the average family on the farm. How much is paid by your 
family? 

2. What were the total expenditures of the United States last 

year? (Consult last “Statistical Abstract of the United 
States,” Bureau of Statistics, Washington, D. C.) 

3. Debate: “ Resolved, that our protective tariff is in the best in¬ 

terests of the farmer.” 

4. Debate: “ Resolved, that the United States should have an in¬ 

come tax.” 

5. The cost of a battleship is $10,000,000, and we are building one 

a year. How many farms would one such ship buy? How 
many teachers would this hire at $500 a year each? (There 
are 5,000 country teachers in North Dakota.) How many 
schoolhouses would this build, allowing $10,000 for a school- 
house? 

6. Examine a piece of paper money. Copy all the words on the 

face of it. Is it a “promise to pay”? 

References 

Daniels, “Public Finance.” 

“Statistical Abstract of the United States.” 


CHAPTER VIII 


RAILROADS 

“To my mind this is the most wonderful thing that ever happened, 
that from time unknown down to eighty years ago or thereabouts, 
motive power, the means of distribution, had not increased in character 
or efficiency. . . . The ox and the horse were the established agencies 
of land distribution. . . . Then, all at once, as it were, into and 
through this social and industrial structure, so highly organized, so 
vast in its ramifications, and yet so adjusted and adapted to the fixed 
limitations of animal power, was thrust this new mode of conveyance 
by mechanical force, this modern miracle of transportation by steam. 
That was the greatest and most transforming event in the history of 
mankind. ... As time goes, this revolution has been extraordinarily 
rapid. But yesterday, as it were, the first iron track had not been 
laid, and even the idea of steam as a valuable motive power had hardly 
been conceived; yet already, within the limits of a lifetime, long lines 
of railways which sprang into being as if born of enchantment have 
stretched out in every direction from one end of the land to the other. 
They have bridged the rivers, penetrated the forests, tunneled the 
mountains, and traversed the deserts with their highways of steel. In 
the passing of a generation the railroad and steamship have transformed 
the whole realm of commerce, of industry, and of social life; they have 
enriched every pursuit, given multiplied value to every vocation, added 
incalculably to the means of human enjoyment, made our vast wealth 
possible; and they are at once the greatest achievement and the great¬ 
est necessity of our modern civilization.” Address of Hon. Martin A. 
Knapp, Chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission, New York, 
November 22, 1910. 

Necessity of.—To make a great State, four things 
are necessary,—soil, climate, people, and transporta¬ 
tion. It is of transportation that we shall now speak. 
It is impossible to imagine even a few people living and 
working together without some common highway or 

144 


RAILROADS 


145 


road. When men take up the government land as 
“claims/’ or otherwise get possession of it, the first 
thing they do is to set apart certain portions of that 
land as public roads to which all have access. As the 
country develops, the need for these common avenues 
of commerce increases. Then comes the transfer of 
land commerce from dirt roads to tracks of steel, and 
the substitution of steam power for horse power. The 



Railroad 


railway is then the principal highway; it is indeed the 
sole highway for long distance traffic. The local gov¬ 
ernment provides and cares for the dirt roads; private 
capital provides the railroads, and the Federal and 
State governments regulate them. 

Importance of. —Next to agriculture, railway trans¬ 
portation is our largest industry. It employs 1,500,000 
men, and spends annually in wages $1,500,000,000. 
The railroads have a mileage of 250,000 miles, enough 
to reach ten times around the earth, or once from the 
Civics N. Dak.—10 






146 WORKINGS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 


earth to the moon. Settlement follows the line of the 
railroad in a new State like North Dakota. New towns 
spring up along the railroads. Indeed, railroads make 
and unmake towns by running through them or pass¬ 
ing them by. Railroads sometimes put forth the claim 
that they make the State. The people, in turn, claim 
that the State makes the railroads. Both statements 
are in part correct. And while the people need pro¬ 
tection from the railroads, at the same time the rail¬ 
roads need protection from the people. Regulation by 
the government is for the purpose of showing justice 
to both. President James J. Hill, one of the greatest 
railroad builders of the world, has stated the relations 
of the railroad to the people in this form: “We must 
prosper together. And in bad crop years we suffer to¬ 
gether. Our interests are the same.” 

Railroad History. —Our railroad system has been 
called a “prodigy of labor, wealth, and skill.” To 
encourage the building of railroads in sparse and desert 
areas Congress at first gave very liberal grants of 
lands. The later roads did not benefit by these land 
grants. The following table shows how the various 
Pacific roads fared: 


Railroad Land Grants 

Union Pacific . 

Kansas Pacific . 

Central Pacific . 

Northern Pacific. 

Atlantic & Pacific. 

Southern Pacific. 

Total . 


13,000,100 acres 
6,000,000 acres 
12,100,100 acres 
47,000,000 acres 
42,000,000 acres 
9,520,000 acres 


129,620,200 acres 










RAILROADS 


147 


This is an area as large as three States the size of North 
Dakota. It is equal to the combined area of the States 
of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, 
Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, 
Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware, with South 
Carolina thrown in. In addition to the land grants, 
a money subsidy of $60,000,000 was given by Con¬ 
gress. 

Railroads were over-encouraged by Congress. They 
were built where they were not yet needed, and where 
they could not earn running expenses. They there¬ 
fore failed and were sold to pay their debts. They 
began again under new management; so that to-day 
most of our great systems of railroads belong to men 
who bought them at less than the original cost and 
then improved them. Thus the system that is now 
the Great Northern originated. Men started the road 
and spent all their savings. Money was borrowed in 
Holland to make the road a success. In this way the 
Dutch spent $20,000,000. In spite of this, the road 
failed, and in 1873 was in the hands of the courts. 
The Dutch then offered their holdings at thirty cents 
on the dollar and lost $14,000,000 of their money. 
Then it was that a group of new men, American rail¬ 
road builders, bought the road and began to improve 
it and extend it westward and northward. Even¬ 
tually the road was built to the ocean, largely by 
borrowed money, and its success was then assured. It 
has not failed a second time. It has indeed made 
great fortunes for those who own it and has paid 


148 WORKINGS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 

interest and principal as fast as due to those who lent 
it money. 

The following financial terms used in describing the 
business of railroad corporations should be understood 
by every young citizen: (1) bonds; (2) stock; (3) cap¬ 
italization; (4) watered stock; (5) pooling. 

(1) Bonds are mortgages. If a farmer buys a farm 
worth $4,000 and has only $2,000 in cash, he pays this 
amount on the farm. He then borrows the other 
$2,000 and pays it on the farm, giving a mortgage on 
the whole farm as security for this amount. He then 
gets a deed to the farm. But someone owns the mort¬ 
gage, and on this mortgage interest must, be paid when 
due, and likewise the principal, or the farmer will lose 
his farm; for the sheriff will sell it to satisfy the mort¬ 
gage. When men want to build a railroad, they pro¬ 
ceed in much the same way. They must borrow much 
of the money required,—sometimes nearly all of it— 
so enormous is the cost of a railroad. The men who 
loan the money have bonds, just as the man who loans 
to a farmer has a mortgage. And interest must be 
paid when due on the bonds otherwise the road will 
fail and fall into the hands of the courts. 

(2) In the case of the farmer mentioned above, his 
deed contains the “ consideration/’ that is, the price 
of $4,000. If the farm is improved from year to year, 
or even if the neighborhood develops without improve¬ 
ment of the farm, the selling value of the farm is likely 
to go up. Hence in time the farmer considers his $4,000 
deed worth possibly $8,000 or more. The same thing 


RAILROADS 


149 


holds true of railroads. When a group of men decide 
to buy or build a railroad, they first unite into a com¬ 
pany known as a “corporation.” This step is nec¬ 
essary not only because it combines the resources of 
the investors and assures cooperation, but also for 
many other reasons. The value of the corporation 
property is represented by “shares” instead of by 
deeds. 

The shares are usually spoken of as the stock of the 
corporation. The stock may cost $4,000 cash, as did 
the deed above, and be worth $8,000; or the stock may 
cost $4,000 and be worth $4,000; or it may cost $8,000 
and be worth $4,000. Indeed, the stock may some¬ 
times cost $8,000 and be worth nothing, or may cost 
almost nothing and be worth $8,000. In other words, 
the value of corporation stock, like the value of all 
other property, does not depend on its cost, but on 
the use to which it can be put, that is, upon its earn¬ 
ing power. 

The Central Pacific Railway is a good illustration 
of this fact. This road was constructed by four men, 
two of whom were, when they began, small storekeep¬ 
ers in San Francisco. Not one of the four was a cap¬ 
italist. Their united funds when they began (1860) 
were $120,000. They built a small stretch of road, 
mortgaged it (that is, issued bonds), and went on issu¬ 
ing bonds and building the road, stretch by stretch, 
from the bond money. They kept all the stock and 
hence complete control of the company. This com¬ 
pany later built the Southern Pacific and its branches, 


150 WORKINGS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 


becoming in this way a great railway power. When 
one of these four men died in 1878, after only eighteen 
years of railroad building, his estate was worth $30,- 
000,000. However, had these men made mistakes in 
building, they would have lost everything, not only 
their own money, but that of the bondholders, as well. 
The stockholders (like the deed holders) own, manage, 
and control the property. But since every railroad is 
heavily mortgaged, they must so manage it as to earn 
interest on the bonds first, and then, if possible, divi¬ 
dends on the stock. 

(3) Enough has been said to show that there are 
two ways for men to invest their capital in railroads, 
in stock and in bonds. Adding together the stock 
and bonds, at their par value, we have the capitaliza¬ 
tion of the road. Thus if a road has stock outstand¬ 
ing with a par value of $100,000,000 and bonds for 
$100,000,000, it is capitalized at $200,000,000. A deed 
for $4,000 does not mean that a farm is worth $4,000; 
neither does a capitalization of $200,000,000 mean that 
a railroad is worth that amount. What each one will 
sell for—and that is the best test of its actual market 
value—depends on its earning power. 

(4) What is watered stock? This is a very loosely- 
used term, for different persons give it different mean¬ 
ings. If the men forming a railroad corporation (or 
any other business corporation) invest $100,000 in 
actual money or in actual work, and issue stock in 
return with a par value of $200,000, this proceeding 
is commonly called “watering the stock” to the amount 


RAILROADS 


151 


of $100,000. In other words, watered stock means 
stock issued which has no investment back of it. 
Prosperous corporations often water their stock in 
this way. When, through good management, growth 
of the country, or other causes, their earnings increase 
greatly, they find their rate of dividend also going up, 
a hundred-dollar share of stock often earning fifteen 
or twenty dollars a year. They thus begin to pay 
their stockholders immense profits—sometimes 15 or 
20 per cent—and the public begins to complain. To 
keep the rate of dividend down to a “reasonable” 
figure, new shares of stock are issued free to the stock¬ 
holders. Then, of course, a low rate of dividend will 
divide the big profits of the corporation among the 
stockholders, and the profits will look “ reasonable 
for evidently 6 per cent of $300 is the same as 18 per 
cent of $100. Both the new stock and the old stock 
pay the same dividends now, say 6 or 7 per cent, and 
both are sold on the market to innocent purchasers. 
Of course, when the innocent purchaser pays $100 
for a share of stock that yields him $6 or $7 a year, 
it is not “watered stock” to him, but an actual in¬ 
vestment. And so it comes about that there are 
arguments both for and against watered stock. In 
favor of it, such corporations as railroads claim that 
they should be allowed to earn big profits, since they as¬ 
sume big risks, and that they should be treated like the 
merchant, banker, and farmer, whose profits are not 
restricted by law. Against it, the claim is made that 
railroads are monopolistic; that they are public service 


152 WORKINGS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 

corporations, and therefore should not be treated like 
the merchant and the farmer; and that they should 
be allowed to make only a reasonable profit on their 
actual investment. 

(5) Pooling among railroads means a combine. It 
is the loosest form of combine known, and was at first 
often spoken of as a “gentlemen’s agreement.” It 
was binding on the different members of the pool only 
so long as their word of honor bound them. Pools 
usually pertained to the manner of doing business and 
to the charges to be made, and had, of course, as their 
chief purpose, the elimination of competition. Pools 
were formed, according to the railroads, to keep rates 
reasonable; but the public thought it was to make rates 
high. So there has been much quarreling over pooling, 
and the matter is not yet settled. 

Railroad Legislation.—Since most of our railroads 
cross State lines, their business is interstate commerce , 
and can be regulated only by the Federal government. 
The State can regulate only the business wholly within 
its own borders. The Federal government has passed 
four important laws regulating railroads, as follows: 

Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 .—In 1887 pooling 
was much discussed throughout the country, and was 
usually bitterly condemned. Hence this law was 
passed, with two purposes in view: (1) to make pooling 
illegal; (2) to create an Interstate Commerce Commis¬ 
sion at Washington to prevent pooling, to study rail¬ 
road business, and to give publicity to the actual work¬ 
ings of our railroads. The law has not prevented pool- 


RAILROADS 


153 


ing but, by giving publicity to railway management, 
has led to the enactment of better laws. 

Sherman Anti-trust Law of 1890 .—This law was 
aimed at the big combines, “trusts,” especially in manu¬ 
facturing. It made “all” combines in restraint of 
interstate trade illegal. But when the Supreme Court 
construed this law, it held that the law applied to 
railroads and to labor unions, as well as to manu¬ 
facturing companies. Such illegal combines as are 
“in restraint of trade” are to be punished by both 
fines and imprisonment. 

Elkins Act , 1903 .—This act declares both the giving 
and the receiving of railroad rebates to be illegal. For 
example, one large manufacturing concern was found to 
be shipping oil at the rate of 35 cents a barrel for 
freight—the published rate for the public to pay—and 
to be getting back a “rebate” of 25 cents a barrel. This 
secret rebate of 25 cents a barrel gave this great concern 
an unfair advantage over all its competitors—in fact it 
helped to ruin them. Under the Elkins law all rebating 
is strictly forbidden. This evil is now very largely 
abolished. 

Commerce Court , 1910 .—A new Federal court was 
created in 1910 to deal exclusively with the difficult 
railroad problems, as they come before it. In this 
way, it is hoped, justice can be done both to the roads 
and to the public. The creation of this court was a 
very wise and important step. 

Aim of Railroad Legislation.—There are three things 
which the public has a right to expect of the railroads: 


154 WORKINGS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 

(1) Good Service .—The service at present is good, but 
could be better. It could also be made safer. 

(2) Good Treatment of Employees .—Wages should in¬ 
crease as the cost of living increases. Wages have in¬ 
creased faster than rates. 

(3) Rates Fair and Reasonable .—Rates should be 
fair, that is, free from discrimination. Rates should 



Great Northern Station 


be reasonable, that is, low enough. American railroad 
rates are now the lowest in the world. What is a reason¬ 
able rate? The answer to this question depends on 
the standard, of which there are too many for dis¬ 
cussion here. Railroads usually charge “what the 
traffic will bear.” Their earnings should be high 
enough to accomplish three things: (1) pay liberal 
wages; (2) make needed repairs'in their equipment; 
(3) construct improvements in the way of new equip- 






RAILROADS 


155 


ment, new depots, new lines, etc., as the public need 
demands. The capitalization of American roads is the 
lowest in the world. The figures are as follows: 

1910 


United States 

Argentina . 

New South Wales 

Canada . 

Switzerland. 

Germany. 

France. 

United Kingdom 
England. 


$ 59,259 per mile 
59,930 per mile 
63,999 per mile 
66,752 per mile 
109,000 per mile 
109,788 per mile 
139,290 per mile 
275,040 per mile 
314,000 per mile 


Success of Regulation.—The Interstate Commerce 
Commission has power to lower rates and to prevent 
advances; but it should also have power to raise rates. 
The Sherman law forbids railroads to enter into reason¬ 
able agreements regarding rates; but it would be better 
to permit such agreements, as is done in other coun¬ 
tries. It seems to be an unsuccessful and unwise policy 
to enforce competition among railroads. “The power 
to compete is the power to discriminate. It is im¬ 
possible to have the presence of competition and the 
absence of discrimination.” Combination under gov¬ 
ernment regulation is recommended by our great au¬ 
thorities. 


Questions on the Text 

1. Compare the means of transportation used in the world the 
first four thousand years with that used the last eighty 
years. 











156 WORKINGS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 


2. What has been accomplished in one generation? 

3. Show the necessity of transportation in developing a State. 

4. Compare the railroad, as to importance, with the dirt road. 

5. Show the importance of railroads in these respects: size of in¬ 

dustry; number of men employed; amount of wages paid 
annually; mileage; making of new towns. 

6. Do the people need protection from the railroads, or the rail¬ 

roads protection from the people? 

7. Why is government regulation justified? 

8. What did a great railroad president once say about the relation 

of the railroads and the people? 

9. Discuss the following topics in railroad history: Early aid 

(land and money); results of congressional aid; beginnings 
of Great Northern system; beginnings of Southern Pacific 
system. 

10. Define and illustrate each of the following terms: bonds; stock; 

capitalization; watered stock; pooling. 

11. Why is it so important to pay the interest due on bonds? 

12. Can you state any reason why railroads are built by corporations 

rather than by individual men? 

13. Show why stock with a face value (par value) of 84,000 is not 

necessarily worth that amount. On what does the value 
of stock depend? 

14. Is a railroad managed by its bondholders or its stockholders? 

15. Does the capitalization of a road tell us what the road is worth? 

Does the deed to a farm tell us what the farm is worth? 
What is the real test of value in each case? 

16. State the arguments for and against watered stock. 

17. What was the real aim of railway pooling? What would be 

the probable effect on rates (two views)? 

18. Why must railway regulation be chiefly Federal rather than 

State? 

19. Give the dates of four important Federal laws on the regulation 

of railroads. 

20. Discuss the Interstate Commerce Act as follows: conditions 

leading to this act; two purposes of the act; its success or 
failure. 

21. Discuss the Sherman Anti-Trust law: aim of the law; provi- 


RAILROADS 


157 


sions of the law; present application, as construed by the 
Supreme Court. 

22. Why was the Elkins law passed? Illustrate. What is the 

chief provision of this law? Its success? 

23. What is the function of the Commerce Court? 

24. In regulating railroads, what three things has the public a 

right to expect of the railroads? 

25. What can you say about the service of our railroads? 

26. What can you say about their treatment of the employees? 

27. What can you say about the reasonableness of our railway 

rates? Give a good test of “reasonableness.” 

28. What is meant by a “fair rate?” 

29. Compare the capitalization of our railroads with that of rail¬ 

roads of other countries. 

30. Criticize carefully the success of our “regulation” thus far. 

31. Is competition really desirable? 


Questions Suggested by the Text 

1. Draw an outline map of North Dakota, and locate all the rail¬ 

roads of the State on it. Locate also principal towns. 

2. Suppose a farmer buys a piece of land for a consideration of 

$4,000, but the consideration named in the deed is $8,000. 
After making a few improvements he sells the land for $8,000, 
giving a deed with this consideration named in it. Is there 
any “watered stock” in this transaction? If a corporation 
buys this land for $4,000 and issues stock thereon for $8,000, 
would this constitute “watering the stock” to the extent of 
$4,000 even though the land is worth $8,000? 

3. What is your definition of watered stock? 

4. Do you think stock watering should be prevented? If so, how? 

5. Debate: “ Resolved, that railway pooling should be permitted.” 

6. Would railway competition benefit or injure the public? How? 

7. Would railway competition benefit or injure the railways? How? 

8. Should the government regulate the profits of railways? 

9. Should the government regulate the ownership of railways? 

10. If you were going to invest $100 in a railroad, would you buy 

stocks or bonds? Why? 


158 WORKINGS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 


11. Problem. A company invests $100,000,000 in a new railroad. 

Its net earnings are 14 per cent a year. A dividend of 7 per 
cent is paid and 7 per cent is reinvested in the road in im¬ 
provements. This is done for 14 years. What is then a 
proper capitalization of the road—$100,000,000 or $198,000,- 
000 or some other figure? 

12. This statement occurs in the 1910 Report of the United States 

Commissioner of Corporations: “In the case of railway dis¬ 
criminations (rebates) cited above, mere publicity accom¬ 
plished an abolition of an evil system in its entirety within 
six months, although criminal prosecution of certain partici¬ 
pants therein has, after four years, succeeded only in two 
cases out of four.” To what extent should publicity be ap¬ 
plied to railway finances and other railway affairs? 

13. What is North Dakota doing to regulate railroads within the 

State? Give concrete examples. (See last report of State 
Railroad Commission, Bismarck.) 

References 

Bryce, “American Commonwealth” (1910 edition), Vol. II. Ch. 106. 
Ripley, “The Railroads and the People,” Atlantic Monthly, Janu¬ 
ary, 1911. 

Johnson, “American Railway Transportation.” 

Reports of the Interstate Commerce Commission. 

Reports of State Railroad Commissions, especially North Dakota 
Wisconsin, and Kansas. 


PART IV 


WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 

CHAPTER IX 

HISTORICAL 

“And it is a characteristic of man that he alone has any sense of good 
and evil, of just and unjust, and the association of living beings who 
have this sense makes a family and a state. . . . But he who is unable 
to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for him¬ 
self, must be either a beast or a god: he is no part of a state.” Aris¬ 
totle, Politics, I. 2. 

The Native Inhabitants. —The Indians were first 
in North Dakota. The abundance of buffalo, deer, 
beaver, antelope, wild ducks and geese, and other 
species of game made these great prairies, lakes, and 
coulees a coveted hunting ground. The Indians, like 
all other races of the globe, are a migratory people. 
Hence North Dakota has been the fighting place and 
the temporary home of many contending tribes of In¬ 
dians. Many traces are left of a now almost extinct 
race. There are still in this State hundreds of mounds, 
effigy mounds, an effigy of a man, bowlder outlines of 
serpents and turtles, tepee circles of stone and pictured 
rocks. Near the village of Inkster is a large group of 
earth mounds, and another group is found near Devils 
Lake. 


159 


160 WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 

The principal Indians found in North Dakota, when 
the white man first arrived, were the Sioux, divided 
into two prominent tribes, the Grosventres and the 
Mandans. The Sioux are the typical native Americans, 
“ physically strong and active, hunters and warriors 
by nature and necessity, shifting from place to place, 
but always free, always dominant, always significant.” 

Exploration.—The fur traders and the missionaries 
to the Indians were the first white men to explore the 
present territory of North Dakota. The first one of 
whom we have a record is La Verendrye, a French fur 
trader and explorer who entered what is now North 
Dakota in 1738. By the year 1800 many French ex¬ 
plorers and fur traders had traversed the State. 

The Lewis and Clark Expedition.—The Federal 
government sent out the famous Lewis and Clark 
expedition on the perilous journey from St. Louis up 
the Missouri Paver to its headquarters, and thence 
westward 'across the unknown wastes of the 11 Stony 
Mountains” to the Pacific Ocean. The winter of 1804 
and the spring of 1805 these brave explorers spent in 
camp at Fort Mandan on the Missouri River. Here 
they met Sakakawea, the faithful little Indian woman 
who went with them as guide, and whose native sagac¬ 
ity and wonderful fidelity not only piloted them safely 
over the obscure passes of the mountains, but ^lso 
past unfriendly tribes of Indians. Because she had 
her papoose with her, the Indians knew it was a “ peace 
party” and not a "war party.” In memory of this 
“Bird Woman,” as the Indians lovingly called her, 


HISTORICAL 


161 


a statue has been erected on the grounds of the State 
capitol. The Lewis and Clark expedition gave to the 
world a published report of the country along the 
river, its climate, its game, and its Indian inhabitants. 

Settlement.—The first permanent settlement in 
North Dakota was at Pembina. Here in 1780 a French¬ 
man in the employ of the Hudson Bay Company estab- 



Railroad 


lished a trading post to which other hardy French fur 
traders came later. These intermarried with the Indian 
women, and then the settlement came to be one of 
mixed bloods. Other settlements in Dakota were made 
very slowly, for these two reasons: Indians owned all 
the land and there were no railroads west of St. Paul. 
After treaties had been made with the Indians, and 
after railroads had been built to this new region, settle¬ 
ment went on rapidly. 

The first Indian treaty for this region, made with 
Civics N. Dak.—11 







162 WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 

the Sioux in 1851, gave the white man a legal claim 
to a small strip of land. Other treaties soon followed. 
The first railroad, the Northern Pacific, reached the 
State at Fargo in 1872. 

Dakota Territory.—Congress passed the “Organic 
Act,” that is, the act organizing Dakota Territory, 
in 1861. Dakota Territory, as thus organized, com¬ 
prised what is now North and South Dakota. Yet the 
entire population of this big Territory was only 4,837. 
Dakota Territory had the form of government usually 
found in Territories, namely a legislative branch chosen 
by the people, a governor chosen by the President, 
and a judicial branch also chosen by the President. 
The first governor was Dr. William Jayne of Spring- 
field, Illinois, chosen by President Lincoln from his 
own home town. The capital of the Territory was 
Yankton till 1883, when it was changed to Bismarck. 
When Dakota had been a Territory twenty-eight years, 
it was ready, in the judgment of Congress, to join the 
family of full-grown States. Accordingly, in 1889 the 
necessary Enabling Act was passed. This Enabling 
Act provided for two great advantages,—a Constitu¬ 
tional Convention to be held at Bismarck, and a mag¬ 
nificent land grant. 

In accordance with the provisions of the Enabling 
Act, the Constitutional Convention met at Bismarck, 
July 4, 1889. The session lasted six long, hot weeks, 
and ended on August 17. The convention was com¬ 
posed of seventy-five men. When they had finished 
their work, they had compiled a State Constitution 


HISTORICAL 


163 


some twenty-eight thousand words in length, or six 
times the length of the United States Constitution. We 
have already read this Constitution in Chapter III. It 
was promptly submitted to the people and was adopted 
by a vote of three to one. 

State of North Dakota.—President Harrison, being 
satisfied that the new State Constitution met the re¬ 
quirements of the Enabling Act, issued his proclama- 



Russel Miller Milling Co., Grand Forks, N. D. 


tion of admission on November 2, 1889. This date 
is, therefore, the birthday of North Dakota. 

Growth of the State.—North Dakota is fortunate 
in its climate and natural resources, and the growth 
of the State in population and industry has been very 
rapid. No other State in the Union has such a mix¬ 
ture of sturdy races. The ancient and mighty Teu¬ 
tonic stock is represented by the Anglo-Saxons, the 






164 WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 

Scandinavians, the Germans, and the German Rus¬ 
sians. The Irish, French, Poles, and Bohemians are 
also very numerous, with their poetic imaginations, 
their love of music and fine art, and their great industry, 
perseverance, and courage as pioneers. This mixture 
of races produces the highest type of American citizen¬ 
ship, combining intelligence, honesty, and patriotism. 
For a great many years North Dakota has had the high¬ 


est per cent of foreign-born 
citizens of any State in the 
Union; indeed her legisla- 



eign born. 

Ploughing and Thrashing in North Dakota _ 

Resources 

and Climate. —North Dakota lies in the same lati¬ 
tude as Paris and Vienna, but a little farther south 
than Berlin and London. The cities of Christiania 
and St. Petersburg are over six hundred miles north of 
North Dakota. This State is a prairie State, contain¬ 
ing but few lakes and forests, and the air is therefore 
wonderfully dry, even in the river valleys. This phe¬ 
nomenon of dry air largely explains the interesting 












HISTORICAL 


165 


fact that the wide ranges of temperature (from 30 
degrees below zero in the winter to 100 degrees above 
in the summer) cause no inconvenience or discomfort 
to the inhabitants. The resources of the State are 
chiefly her wheat lands, her coal fields, and her clay 
deposits. Several hundred thousand tons of lignite 
coal are mined annually. The rich clays of the State 
are now used to produce brick, tile, pottery, and dishes. 

With less than half its land under cultivation, North 
Dakota already ranks among the great agricultural 
States of the Union. 


Questions on the Text 

1. Who were the native inhabitants of North Dakota? What re¬ 

mains did they leave? What was the character of these 
people? 

2. Who first explored North Dakota? 

3. Who was Sakakawea? What was her work? 

4. Give an account of the Lewis and Clark expedition. 

5. Where was the first settlement in North Dakota? By whom? 

When? 

6. State two reasons for the slow settlement of this region. 

7. How were these obstacles overcome? 

8. When was Dakota Territory organized? Wliat was its first 

form of government? 

9. Who was the first governor? 

10. Where was the first capital? When was it removed, and to 

what place? 

11. When was the Enabling Act passed? State two provisions of 

this act. 

12. Give a full account of the Constitutional Convention. 

13. When was North Dakota admitted to the Union? 

14. Describe the population of North Dakota. 

15. Describe the climate and resources. 


16b WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 

Questions Suggested by the Text 

1. How much wheat was raised in North Dakota last year? Flax? 

Oats? Hay? How much in the last five years? (See “ Statisti¬ 
cal Abstract of the United States,” issued by Bureau of Sta¬ 
tistics, Department of Commerce and Labor, Washington, 
D. C. Sent free on application.) 

2. Draw a map of your school district (or your county) and locate 

thereon the different nationalities. Can you draw a race 
map of North Dakota, locating the principal foreign-born 
settlements? 

3. Prepare a table showing the different nationalities represented 

in the last legislative assembly. (See copy of last “Blue 
Book,” to be had free on application, from Secretary of 
State, Bismarck.) 

References 

Bryce, “American Commonwealth” (1910 edition), Vol. I, Ch. 36. 
“ Blue Book of North Dakota.” 

Publications of State Historical Society of North Dakota. 


I 


CHAPTER X 


THE EXECUTIVE 


“The people are coming to look upon the head of their common¬ 
wealth as the person responsible for giving them a firm and honest 
administration. When they are convinced of his rectitude, they regard 
him as the representative of their own best will and purpose, and have 
in some instances shown that they are prepared to support him against 
the legislature, and to require the latter to take the path he has pointed 
out.” Bryce, “American Commonwealth,” Vol. I, Ch. 41. 

The Chief Executive.—The executive work of the 
State is yearly becoming of more importance to every 
citizen. The Constitution makes the governor chief ex¬ 
ecutive, fixes his term and qualifications, and sums up 
his duties in these simple words, “ He shall take care that 
the laws be faithfully executed.” The governor’s salary 
is $5,000 a year, and the State provides an executive 
mansion for his use. 

Powers and Duties.—The governor has certain 
military powers. He is commander in chief of the 
militia of the State. In case of a tumult or lawless out¬ 
break he has power to call out the military force of 
the State. He has also certain appointing powers, al¬ 
though they are small compared with those of the 
President of the United States. He appoints the trus¬ 
tees of all State institutions, some of the State boards 
and commissions, and the adjutant-general in charge 

167 


168 WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 

of the militia,—a total of from one hundred and fifty 
to two hundred men. He is held responsible also for 
law enforcement. The governor’s oath imposes on him 
the duty of enforcing the law. But how can he en¬ 
force the laws? How can lawbreakers be brought 
before the courts, for this is what law enforcement 
means? It is very rarely necessary to call out the 
militia to quell disturbances. Most lawbreaking is. 
on a smaller scale. To illustrate, the prohibition law 
is sometimes violated. The State has an officer in 
each county to enforce State laws, namely, the State’s 
attorney. If this officer is informed by any person 
of the violation of the prohibition law, or if he knows 
himself of such a violation, it is his sworn duty to 
have the sheriff arrest the lawbreaker and have him 
brought to trial before the proper court. If he is un¬ 
able to do this, or if he neglects or refuses to enforce 
this law, the attorney-general must proceed with the 
matter, and may also have the State’s attorney tried 
before a court, and removed from office. The governor 
must act through this machinery,—the various State’s 
attorneys and the attorney-general. In this way must 
he secure law enforcement. If the attorney-general re¬ 
fuses to do his duty, there are two things the governor 
may do. He may get an order (a mandamus) from the 
supreme court, which is a command for the officer to 
do his duty. If the officer refuses to obey, he is guilty of 
contempt of court, and will be fined or imprisoned. Or 
the governor may proceed in the proper court to have 
the attorney-general ousted from office for nonperform- 


THE EXECUTIVE 


169 


ance of duty. It may be asked here, what can be done 
if the governor himself refuses to do his duty? If the 
governor himself refuses to obey the law, he, too, can be 
removed from office upon being impeached by the house 
of representatives and convicted by the senate. Hence 
the machinery of law enforcement is complete, although 
somewhat slow and clumsy. 

Lieutenant Governor.—The lieutenant governor has 
the same qualifications as the governor. His salary 
is $1,000 a year. In case of the death of the governor, 
he succeeds to this high office. He is president of the 
senate, but he has no vote in that body, except in case 
of a tie. The senate has vested in him the important 
duty of choosing all standing committees of the sen¬ 
ate,—a very responsible power. 

Executive Departments.—It will be recalled that in 
the case of the Federal government, the President 
chooses the heads of the executive departments and 
these men are known as his cabinet. In the State, 
however, the heads of the various executive depart¬ 
ments are all elected by the people. There are eight 
of these departments, as follows: 

State .—The secretary of state has charge of the 
official State documents and papers, and he must see 
that these records are accurate and that they are pre¬ 
served forever. 

Auditor .—The auditor is the bookkeeper of the 
State, and is a check on the treasurer, for no money is 
spent except by the treasurer on the written order of 
the auditor. 


170 WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 

Treasurer. —The treasurer receives all money of the 
State, and deposits it in banks for safe keeping. He 
is under a $500,000 bond. 

Education. —The superintendent of public instruction 
supervises the public school system of the State. He 
prepares examination questions, and issues State 
certificates. 

Insurance. —It is the duty of the commissioner of 
insurance to see that the State’s insurance laws are 
strictly enforced, and that no bogus and fraudulent 
insurance companies enter the State from the outside 
or spring up within. 

Railroads. —The State railroad commission consists 
of three members. It is their duty to see that the 
State laws regulating railroads are faithfully carried 
out. They are to protect the interest of the people in 
dealing with the railroad corporations of the State. 

Law. —The attorney-general is the State’s lawyer. 
He represents the State before the Supreme Court. 
He defends the State in actions in which it is a party. 
He gives legal advice to other State officials, when 
asked. As noted before, the governor’s success in law 
enforcement depends largely on the attorney-general. 

Agriculture and Labor. —The commissioner of agri¬ 
culture and labor is the official booster of the State. 
He encourages immigration of a good class to come to 
North Dakota, and promotes the erection of new homes 
within its borders. 

Boards and Commissions. —There are many other 

important laws of the State entrusted to special boards, 


THE EXECUTIVE 


171 


commissioners, inspectors, examiners, and experts for 
their enforcement. For example: Low grade and dan¬ 
gerous gasoline must not be shipped into the State. 
The state oil inspector must see that this law is rigidly 
enforced, and he has a sufficient force of deputies to do 
this work. Adulterated canned goods, impure drugs, 
and impure foods prepared with dangerous preserva¬ 
tives are not to be sold in North Dakota. The pure 



Agricultural College, Fargo 


food commissioner in connection with the Agricultural 
College at Fargo, by means of expert chemists, examines 
foods, paints, drugs, liquor, etc., to see that our excellent 
pure food laws are enforced. To prevent the scourge 
of typhoid fever, the spread of tuberculosis, scarlet 
fever, and other contagious and dangerous diseases, 
among human beings, the doctors of the State have the 
service free of charge of the State Public Health Labora¬ 
tory in connection with the State University at Grand 
Forks. 







172 WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 

The number of boards, commissioners, etc., is grow¬ 
ing. There are over 60 at the present time. In this 
way more and more the State is securing the service of 
experts for the public welfare. 

State Institutions.—The following are the State In¬ 
stitutions and their location: 


University and School of Mines. Grand Forks 

Agricultural College. Fargo 

Penitentiary. Bismarck 

Insane Asylum. Jam estown 

Deaf and Dumb School. Devils Lake 

Reform School . Mandan 

Normal . Valley City 

Normal . Mayville 

Normal . Minot 

Feeble-minded Institute. Grafton 

Soldiers’ Home. Lisbon 

Blind Asylum. Bathgate 

State Normal and Industrial School . Ellendale 

School of Forestry . Bottineau 

Science School. Wahpeton 


Questions on the Text 

1. What is the chief executive of the State called? Give his quali¬ 

fications, term, and salary. 

2. State his three classes of powers, and illustrate each. 

3. Show in detail how he can enforce the law. 

4. What is a writ of mandamus? 

5. How and when may a governor be impeached? 

6. Name eight executive departments. Are these chosen by the 

governor or elected by the people? 

7. Describe briefly the work of these eight departments. 

8. How many boards, commissioners, inspectors, etc., are now 

engaged in the administrative work of this State? 

















THE EXECUTIVE 


173 


9. Name and illustrate the work of three of these. 

10. Name and locate the State institutions. 

Questions Suggested by the Text 

1. Who is responsible for a loose or a strict enforcement of State 

law in your county? 

2. How can a governor get rid of an official in the executive de¬ 

partment who refuses to enforce the law? 

3. Name twenty State boards and give in detail the work of any 

one of them. (See Blue Book for list. See published re¬ 
port of Board for its workings.) 

References 

Bryce, “American Commonwealth” (1910 edition), Vol. I., Ch. 41. 
Hart, “Actual Government”, Ch. 6. 

State Reports of the various State institutions, departments, boards, 
commissions, etc. Apply to Secretary of State, Bismarck. 


CHAPTER XI 

THE LEGISLATURE 


“An American State legislature always consists of two houses, the 
smaller called the Senate, the larger usually called the House of Repre¬ 
sentatives. . . . The Americans restrain their legislatures by divid¬ 
ing them, just as the Romans restrained their executive by substitut¬ 
ing two consuls for one king. The only States that ever tried to do 
with a single house were Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Vermont, all of 
whom gave it up: the first after four years’ experience, the second after 
twelve years, the last after fifty years.” Bryce, “ American Common¬ 
wealth,” Vol. I, Ch. 40. 

The Legislative Assembly.—The legislative branch 
of the State government is called in official language 
the legislative assembly. It is composed of a senate and 
a house of representatives. A session is held at Bis¬ 
marck, the State capital, in each odd-numbered year. 
The regular session cannot exceed sixty days in length. 

Members.—The qualifications and terms of members 
we have seen in Chapter III. Each member is elected 
from a “district.” For this purpose the legislative 
assembly has divided the State into a number of dis¬ 
tricts, one for each State senator. Each district is 
numbered—first district, second district, and so on— 
and one senator is elected from each district. Since 
there are two or three times as many representatives 
as senators, there are, of course, two or three represen¬ 
tatives from each district in the State 

The salary of State senators and representatives is 
174 


THE LEGISLATURE 


175 


the same, namely, $ 5 a day, and ten cents a mile for 
mileage in traveling to and from the capital. Since a 
representative is elected for but one term, and a sen¬ 
ator for two terms,—one half the senators being elected 
at one time,—it follows that the “house” is a new house 
every two years, while the senate is half new and half 
“holdover.” In this way the legislature is sure to have 
a body of seasoned men at every session. 



The State Capitol at Bismarck 


Organization of the Two Houses.—The house of 
representatives elects its own speaker. The senate 
has for its presiding officer the lieutenant governor 
(elected, of course, by the people). In each house the 
presiding officer appoints all the standing committees. 
There are some forty or fifty of these committees in 
each house. There are many committees because 
each of the hundreds of bills introduced is referred to 




176 WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 

an appropriate committee for examination. These 
committees sift out the bills that they consider good 
and recommend that they “do pass.” Since there is 
an average of ten new bills introduced every day, there 
is not time enough to debate even one fourth of them. 
Hence the bill must depend on the committee for the 
examination of its merits and defects. The com¬ 
mittee may amend the bill, or may kill it by neglect, 
or may report it back with the recommendation that 
it “do not pass.” 

Process of Lawmaking.—Each house adopts its own 
rules. This is a necessary step, for even a common 
debating club or literary society cannot get along with¬ 
out its “parliamentary law.” These rules of the two 
houses provide an “order of business” for the day. 
This includes, among a dozen other things, (1) the time 
for reports of standing committees; (2) the time for 
the introduction of new bills; (3) the time for the first 
and second readings of bills; (4) the time for the con¬ 
sideration and debate of bills. Any member may 
at the proper time introduce any kind of bill. The 
exception to this rule is that no bills for appropriating 
money can be introduced after the fortieth day of the 
session, except by unanimous consent. Each bill must 
have three readings before it can become a law. But 
most bills do not get advanced so far as the “third 
reading” stage. 

Not all bills, of course, go through exactly the same 
process, but the usual steps in the process of law¬ 
making are as follows: 


THE LEGISLATURE 


177 


(1) First Reading in Full. —This is for information 
and not to stir up debate. The bill must then pass 
to its second reading, which may take place the same 
day. The second reading is by title, that is, reading 
of only the title of the bill, which is merely a formal 
step. 

(2) Referred to a committee by the presiding officer. 

(3) Action by the committee. —This process we have 
just described. If the committee reports the bill back 
it passes on to the fourth stage, namely: 

(4) Action by the house. —The bill goes on the “ cal¬ 
endar’ ’ or list of bills to be considered, and awaits its 
turn in the order of business. The bill is then de¬ 
bated, and goes to its third reading, and to a vote. 
It is passed, we will assume, and this requires a majority 
vote of the members-elect. 

(5) All bills passed by one house go on to the next 
house , where the same process is repeated. If amended, 
the bill must be returned to the first house for a con¬ 
sideration of the amendment. When the bill has been 
finally agreed to by both houses, it is signed by the 
presiding officers and then sent to the governor. 

(6) Action by the governor. —The bill is either: (a) 
signed and becomes a law; or is (b) not signed, but 
sent back with the governor’s veto within three days, 
and passes each house again, this time with a two- 
thirds majority, and becomes a law; or is (c) not 
signed and is not returned to the legislature within 
three days, and becomes a law without the governor’s 
signature. If the legislature has meantime adjourned, 

Civics N. Dak.—12 


178 WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 


the governor has fifteen days in which he must either 
sign or veto all bills left with him. 

Legislative Powers.—The State legislature has the 
taxing power, that is, it votes the State taxes on the 
people. It also has all other powers that are not ex¬ 
pressly prohibited in the Federal and State Constitu¬ 
tions. 

Legislative Reference Library.—The State has many 
complex problems for its lawmakers to grapple with. 
For instance, How shall railroads be regulated? How 
shall corporations be taxed? How may education be 
improved? What is the best method of securing good 
roads? How can public health be better protected? 
Does the State need the initiative and referendum? 
These are a few of the many problems, which cannot 
be solved without much study. To help the lawmaker 
do his work scientifically, get at all the facts, profit 
by the experience of other States and avoid their mis¬ 
takes, the State has provided at the capitol a Legis¬ 
lative Reference Library, in charge of a specially trained 
expert. Laws of other States, court decisions, statistics, 
etc., are there kept on hand. The legislator is thereby 
helped to do his work more intelligently and success¬ 
fully than would be possible without this service. 

Questions on the Text 

1. What is the official name of our State legislature? 

2. How is it composed? State the place, time, and length of ses¬ 

sion. 

3. Give the date of meeting and the qualifications of members 

(see Constitution). 


THE LEGISLATURE 


179 


4. What is meant by a senatorial district? 

5. What is a “holdover” senator? 

6. Describe the organization of the two houses; presiding officers; 

committee system. 

7. Discuss the rules of each house; need of regular order of business. 

8. Trace a bill through six steps in the process of lawmaking. 

9. Describe two ways in which a bill can become a law without 

the governor’s signature. 

10. Explain the State Legislative Reference Library, and show the 

importance of the work. 

11. State the general legislative powers of the legislature. 

Questions Suggested by the Text 

1. In what senatorial district do you live? Draw a map of this 

district. Who were the senator and representatives from 
this district in the last legislative assembly? 

2. Describe the work of the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Li¬ 

brary. Of that of our own State. 

3. Examine a copy of the last session laws of North Dakota. Note 

the bills vetoed by the governor and the reasons for his 
vetoes. (A copy of the session laws can be borrowed from 
any lawyer, from a justice of the peace, or from one of the 
county officials.) 

4. Write an essay discussing the work of the last legislative as¬ 

sembly; the number of bills introduced in each house; the 
number of bills passed; the principal subjects on which bills 
were passed; the principal bills which failed of passage. 
Criticize the output of this legislature. (Secure a copy of 
“House Journal” and “Senate Journal” for last session, 
containing above information.) 

References 

Bryce, “American Commonwealth” (1910 edition), Vol. I, Chs. 40, 
44. 

Hart, “Actual Government,” Ch. 5. 

Dunn, “The Community and the Citizen,” Chs. 19, 23. 


CHAPTER XII 


THE JUDICIARY 

“In all civilized governments the courts play the important part of 
applying to specific cases the principles of tradition, written constitu¬ 
tions, and statutes.” Hart, “ Actual Government,” Ch. 9. 

In our State we have three grades of courts as fol¬ 
lows: (1) supreme court; (2) district courts; (3) local 
courts. 

Organization of the Courts.—The supreme court 
is made up of five judges, men “learned in the 
law.” A judge in this court must be at least thirty 
years of age, must be a citizen of the United States, 
and must have resided in the State three years next 
preceding his election. The term of a judge is six 
years. The salary is $5,000 a year. The judges in 
this court, and in all the other State courts, are elected 
by the people. 

The district courts are also provided for in the Con¬ 
stitution. The legislature divides the State into a 
convenient number of districts. Each judicial district 
has its own district judge. Since a district contains 
more than one county, the district judge must go from 
one county seat to another to hold court. The district 
judge must be educated in the law, must be at least 
twenty-five years old, a citizen of the United States, a 

180 


THE JUDICIARY 


18 L 


resident of the State for two years, and a resident of 
the district for which he is elected. His term of office 
is four years and his salary is $4,000 a year. 

The reader will recall, at this point, that in the 
case of the Federal judiciary, all judges are appointed 
(not elected); their term is for life (not for four or six 



Justice of the Peace 

years); and their salary, while low, is much above that 
of the State judges. 

The local courts are of three kinds, namely, county 
courts, justice courts, and municipal courts. County 
judges and the justices of the peace are elected by the 
people for a term of two years. The salary of the 
county judge depends on the size of his county. The 
justice of the peace receives fees for his salary. There 
is one county judge for each county. The number of 















182 WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 

justices of the peace is as follows: two for each civil 
township; four for each county; one for each village; 
and one for each city. In each city the people elect 
a municipal judge, known also as the “police magis¬ 
trate’’ or “police judge.” His court is usually called 
the “police court.” 

The Work of the Courts.—The jurisdiction and 
work of these various courts will now be considered, 
beginning at the lowest. But first a word about law 
enforcement. 

As we have seen on a preceding page, the executive 
of the State and the courts of the State must really 
work together in law enforcement. In other words, 
the executive may seize a law breaker, but the courts 
must be used for the determination of what is just 
and for the administration of justice. Complex as the 
work of the courts may at first appear, there are but 
three simple principles involved: (1) The property of 
each individual must be respected. Lincoln expressed 
this great truth in these plain words,—“Let not him 
who is houseless pull down the house of another, but 
let him work diligently and build one for himself, thus 
by example assuring that his own shall be safe from 
violence when built.” (2) The life of each person 
must be protected. (3) The peace and dignity of the 
State must be preserved. 

The two kinds of cases that come before the courts 
are known as (1) civil actions, and (2) criminal actions. 
Civil actions are those involving the keeping of con¬ 
tracts, the payment of wages, and other private matters. 


THE JUDICIARY 


183 


In other words, the “peace and dignity of the State” 
is not involved in any way. 

Criminal actions are those brought against a person 
for committing some crime. A crime is defined as a 
public offense or act committed or omitted in violation 
of law and punishable by death, imprisonment, fine, 
or other penal discipline. The two classes of crimes 
are felonies (punished with death or imprisonment in 
the penitentiary) and misdemeanors (all other crimes). 

Local Courts. —The county court may be called a 



-1 probate court, since 

wills are there “pro- 
bated.” This court 

m e wm m » &i i 

J 

Courthouse, Billings Co. 

has jurisdiction over 
the probating of wills, 



the settlement of es- Courthouse, McHeury Co. 

tates of deceased per¬ 
sons, the appointment of guardians, and the granting 
of marriage licenses and performing of marriage cere¬ 
monies. In some counties of over two thousand popula¬ 
tion, this court now has, through a vote of the electors, 
“increased jurisdiction.” The police courts have exclu¬ 
sive jurisdiction of offenses against the city. Justices of 
the peace courts have jurisdiction within their county 
of petty civil and criminal actions. They may also per¬ 
form marriage ceremonies. They have no jurisdiction 















184 WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 

over cases involving the title to real estate. A justice 
of the peace has power to impose a fine up to a hundred 
dollars, and to sentence to jail for not over thirty days. 
If the case seems to require severer punishment, he 
must take the proper steps to have the case brought 
before the district court, in the manner described below. 

Bail.—Justice courts and police courts settle petty 
cases; but they cannot settle important cases. They 
give a “preliminary hearing” where a serious offense 
is charged. Thus if a person is caught running away 
with another's horse, he may be taken before the jus¬ 
tice and have a preliminary hearing. If the evidence 
is strong that the man was stealing the horse, he will 
be “bound over” by the justice, as a usual thing to 
the district court. That is, the accused person is put 
under a bond, signed by responsible parties guaran¬ 
teeing his appearance at the stated time before the 
higher court. If he forfeits his bond, or “bail,” as it is 
also called, by running away or otherwise refusing to 
appear, the money named in the bond—usually a 
large sum—must be paid over. If the person accused 
of the crime cannot give financial security or bail, he 
must go to jail and wait for the regular time for trial— 
sometimes weeks, sometimes months. 

Of course if the accused person could show that he 
had bought the horse or had borrowed it or could give 
any other legal excuse for having it in his possession, 
the justice of the peace would dismiss him at the pre¬ 
liminary hearing. The justice would receive a small 
fee for his work, and there the matter would end. 


THE JUDICIARY 


185 


Civil actions for small amounts may begin in the 
justice courts, and be settled there, or may be appealed 
to the district courts. If the sued person fails to appear 
before the higher court, he loses his suit, of course, 
and the sheriff collects the money from him, if possible. 

The District Courts. —The district courts have ju¬ 
risdiction over all civil actions and over all crimes and 
misdemeanors where a State law is involved. Rob¬ 
bing the post office, for example, would be a question 
involving the Federal law. However, all our ordinary 
cases are tried in our district courts, such as the fol¬ 
lowing: trial of horse thieves, burglars, murderers, 
divorce actions, “blind pig” cases, and cases involving 
land or other property. Over these the district court 
has original jurisdiction; it has appellate jurisdiction 
over all cases appealed from the local courts. It is 
in the district court that we first meet the jury,—that 
body of “twelve good men and true” dear to the Anglo- 
Saxon heart. 

The Supreme Court.—The supreme court has no 
jury, because it does not try questions of fact. Ques¬ 
tions of fact must be settled in the courts below, and 
be agreed upon by the parties before the supreme 
court, which decides only questions of law. For in¬ 
stance, has the trial of a certain person accused of 
murder been conducted at every step in the court 
below according to law? If not, then the supreme 
court may overrule the lower court's decision, or may 
send the case back to be tried again. In other words, 
the supreme court does not ask, “Is the man guilty 


186 WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 

of murder?”—a question of fact; but, “Has he been 
tried according to law?”—a question of laiv. Examples 
of cases decided by the supreme court are these: Is a 
certain bond issue of a city legal? Does the law give 
the county board of equalization power to assess a 
bank? Has a certain new county been formed legally? 
Has a certain man, sentenced to be hanged for murder, 
been given a legal trial? 

The Jury.—A jury is “drawn” (that is, selected) in 
this way: Names of qualified taxpayers are selected, 
placed in a box at the courthouse, and shaken up. 
Names are then drawn out. The list thus drawn 
represents the jury. When a case has been tried be¬ 
fore a jury, the twelve men retire to the jury room and 
come to a discussion in strict privacy. Their verdict 
must be unanimous . If one man holds out against the 
eleven, the whole jury is discharged and the case is 
tried again before a new jury. Or the case may be 
dropped, and a person accused of murder may thus 
be set free, with no legal proof of his guilt or inno¬ 
cence. 

Critics have said much for and against our jury 
system. On the one hand it is full of delays; it is ex¬ 
pensive, since the county must in criminal cases pay 
the jurors; and it is difficult to get a unanimous verdict 
when the penalty is going to be very severe, especially 
if it is to be the death penalty. On the other hand, 
the jury is made up of poor men of the “common 
people,” and hence has a strong place in a democratic 
country; rich and poor have the same standing before 


THE JUDICIARY 


187 


it; great corporations cannot corrupt it; it is a safe¬ 
guard of the liberty and rights of the people. 

Judicial Procedure. —Without tracing in detail the 
course of an action before the courts, let us now exam¬ 
ine the main features of our judicial procedure. 

A Criminal Action .—First as to a criminal action: 
The person suspected of committing a crime is ar¬ 
rested and taken before a magistrate, usually a justice 
of the peace. If this magistrate does not have juris¬ 
diction to try the case, the prisoner is committed to 
jail or let out on bail, to await the session of the dis¬ 
trict court. The prisoner then enters a plea of “ guilty ” 
or “not guilty.” If he pleads not guilty, he is entitled 
to a trial by jury. If the accused is poor and friendless 
and has no lawyer to defend him, the judge appoints 
one at the expense of the county. The accused has a 
“right of counsel” which is thus respected. Witnesses 
(if there are any) are compelled to come before the 
court and testify. At the conclusion of the trial, the 
judge makes a “charge” to the jury, that is, he states 
clearly to them the laws that apply and how they 
apply to the case. For example, the prisoner may be 
on trial for manslaughter. But a juryman cannot tell 
whether he is guilty of manslaughter or not, till the 
juryman himself first knows exactly what manslaughter 
is, and how it differs from murder of some other degree. 
The jury then brings back a verdict of “guilty” or 
“not guilty.” If not guilty, the prisoner is set at 
liberty at once. If guilty, the judge sentences him 
within a day or two to the punishment which the law 


188 WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 


prescribes. If there are circumstances that make for 
mercy, the judge will pronounce the minimum penalty; 
if there are circumstances that make the crime all the 
more serious, the judge will usually pronounce the 
maximum penalty. When the death sentence is pro¬ 
nounced by the judge, he must sign a warrant stating 
the sentence, and setting the date of execution, which 
day must not be less than six months nor more than 
nine months off. Executions in North Dakota are by 
hanging, the punishment being inflicted within the 
walls of the penitentiary at Bismarck. 

A prisoner is presumed to be innocent till proved 
guilty. The innocent man has every chance to prove 
his innocence. So many safeguards, indeed, have 
been thrown around him that even the guilty man 
may sometimes escape justice by taking advantage of 
them. 

A Civil Action .—A civil action differs greatly from 
a criminal action. For the party against whom the 
suit is brought, the defendant, cannot be punished with 
death, imprisonment, or fine. He cannot be arrested 
and brought before the court. A notice is served on 
him, called a summons. The action against him is 
brought by a plaintiff whose grievance is usually a finan¬ 
cial one, such as the breaking of a contract, an unpaid 
debt, damages sustained, claims to property, and the 
like. If the defendant does not answer the summons 
within twenty days, he loses the suit and the court 
awards the judgment to the plaintiff. If an answer is 
filed, it creates an issue for the jury to settle. The jury 


THE JUDICIARY 


189 


determines the rights of each party, and, in case money 
is due, the amount to be paid. 

New Trial and Appeal .—The party aggrieved is 
entitled to have a new trial—that is, a reexamination 
by the same court—if there has been any irregularity 
in the proceedings, any misconduct of the jurjq any 
newly discovered evidence, if, owing to passion or 
prejudice, the damages awarded have been excessive, 
if there has been any error made by the judge in his 
rulings, or if the judge himself orders a new trial. If 
the judge refuses to grant a new trial, an appeal may 
be taken to the supreme court. It is very easy to 
obtain a new trial, and this fact no doubt sometimes 
gives a rich litigant an advantage over a poor man. 
The chief objection is that a new trial can be had on 
account of a mere technical error,—one that has noth¬ 
ing to do with the real justice of the case,—and that 
during a long trial many technical errors are sure to 
be made by the judge. For it must be remembered 
that some trials last many days; that the judge presid¬ 
ing must repeatedly make rulings as to points of law 
—admitting or rejecting pieces of evidence, giving or 
refusing permission to lawyers to require witnesses to 
answer certain questions. Indeed, like the presiding 
officer of any deliberative body, the judge himself may 
be said to be on trial, and the more errors he can be 
made to commit, the better it is for the lawyer of the 
accused. In some trials a judge has been charged by 
the lawyer with making over two hundred errors. It 
is the duty of the supreme court to read the record 


190 WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 


of the case (taken down in shorthand by court report¬ 
ers and then typewritten), and to determine whether 
any error, however slight, has been made by the judge. 
If it finds an error it may reverse the decision or send 
the case back for another trial. 

Our courts have been criticized for too much regard 
for technicalities. Here again, however, they are zeal¬ 
ous to protect the innocent even although the process 
sometimes aids in the escape of the guilty. 

Questions on the Text 

1. What are the three grades of courts in our State? 

2. Explain in detail the organization of each court. 

3. Prepare a table of our judges, showing their term and salary. 

4. How are State and Federal judges chosen? 

5. What three simple principles govern the workings of our courts? 

6. Distinguish between civil and criminal action; between two 

kinds of crime. 

7. What are the duties of the county court? 

8. What are the duties of the police court? the justice court? 

9. Define bail and illustrate your meaning. 

10. What punishment can the police and justice courts inflict? 

11. State the jurisdiction of the district court. Distinguish be¬ 

tween original and appellate jurisdiction. 

12. State the jurisdiction of the supreme court. Explain “ques¬ 

tions of law.” Give examples. 

13. In what court is the jury found? 

14. Explain the “drawing of a jury”; unanimous verdict. 

15. Give arguments for and against the jury system. 

16. Explain procedure in a criminal action. 

17. Explain procedure in a civil action. 

18. How are new trials secured? Appeals? 

19. Explain how a judge sometimes makes an error. 

20. Explain these legal terms: bail; bond; plea; right of counsel; 

verdict; maximum penalty; defendant; plaintiff; summons; 
preliminary hearing; charging the jury; death warrant. 


THE JUDICIARY 


191 


Questions Suggested by the Text 

1. Name the judges of our State supreme court. 

2. Name the district judge of your district. Name your county 

judge; your justice of the peace. 

3. Give an account of some criminal case appealed to the supreme 

court, and its final outcome. 

4. Can you suggest any way of improving our court system? 

References 

Wright, ‘’'Practical Sociology,” Chs. 21, 22. 

Dunn, “Community and The Citizen,” Ch. 10. 

Bryce, “American Commonwealth” (1910 edition), Vol. I, Ch. 42. 
Hart, “Actual Government,” Ch. 7. 


CHAPTER XI rI 


LOCAL GOVERNMENT 

“It will be observed that of the general functions of local government 
above described, three, namely, police, sanitation, and poor relief, are 
simpler and less costly than in England, and indeed in most parts of 
western and central Europe. It has therefore proved easier to vest the 
management of all in the same local authority, and to get on with a 
smaller number of special executive officers. Education is indeed al¬ 
most the only matter which has been deemed to demand a special body 
to handle it.” Bryce, “American Commonwealth,” Vol. I, Ch. 49. 

We now come to the study of our local government. 
Thus far we have been studying the State as a whole, 
but the State has many subdivisions, made for the 
purpose of carrying on local government. There are 
five of these subdivisions, namely, the county, township, 
school district, city, and village. With all of these we 
are familiar. In making a closer study of our local 
government we find that we may look at it from two* 
view points, exactly as we do when we study the 
various parts of the human body. For example, we 
may study the heart as a small piece of machinery 
composed of a very tough muscle; or we may study 
the heart as it works in pumping the blood and making 
it circulate throughout the body. This work of the 
heart is its function. So we may ask the two ques¬ 
tions in regard to each of our local government sub¬ 
divisions: (1) What work is it doing for us? This is 

192 


LOCAL GOVERNMENT 


193 


a study of its functions. (2) What form of organization 
is doing this work for us? What is the machinery 
used? This is a study of the organs of local government. 

There are six functions of local government, and 
they concern these subjects: (1) Good Roads; (2) Pub- 



Trees Sacrificed for Telegraph Poles 


lie Health; (3) Charity and Poor Relief; (4) Justice and 
Police; (5) Finance and Taxation; (6) Education. 
After making a careful study of these functions we will 
determine what are the present organs of local govern¬ 
ment for performing these functions. 

Questions on the Text 

1. Name the subdivisions of our State. 

2. Show the difference between a function and an organ of local 

government. 

3. What are the six functions of local government? 

Civics N. Dak.—13 













194 WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 


4. What does Bryce say concerning police, public health, and poor 
relief? About education? 

Questions Suggested by the Text 

1. Draw a large outline map of North Dakota. On it locate five 

local government subdivisions. 

2. Which subdivision has only one function? 

3. Which one has six functions? 

4. In studying the human body, we usually learn of its anatomy 

and physiology. Is there an anatomy and physiology of 
local government? 


References 

Fairlie, “Local Government in Counties, Townships, and Villages,” 
Chs. 1-3. 

Dunn, “The Community and the Citizen,” Ch. 21. 

Hart, “Actual Government,” Ch. 10. 

Bryce, “American Commonwealth” (1910 edition), Vol. I, Chs. 48, 
49. 


CHAPTER XIV 


GOOD ROADS 

“That the roads of America are proverbially ill-built and ill-kept is 
due partly to the climate. . . . partly to the hasty habits of the people, 
who are too busy with other things, and too eager to use their capital 
in private enterprises to be willing to spend freely on highways; partly 
also to the thinness of population.” Bryce, “American Common¬ 
wealth,” Vol. I, Ch. 49. 



A Heavy Load Easily pulled on a Good Road 


Need of Good Roads.—The life and growth of a 
community depend upon its having good roads, espe¬ 
cially if it is a farming community. Good roads im¬ 
prove the looks of a country, increase the comfort of 
the people, lower the cost of living, save wear and 
tear on horses, harness, and vehicles, and raise the 
value of land. 


195 





196 WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 


Our Present System. —Roadmaking in this State is 
turned over to the counties and townships. Compare 
our system with that in other States. Many States 
now have a State Highway Commission to help both 
with money and with expert engineering supervision 
in the work of building up a good road system. Some 
States have a county officer who supervises the road 
construction of the county; while others leave the 
matter entirely to the local townships. North Dakota 
now combines the county and township system. 



Dangerous Wooden Bridge 


Each county may appoint a county superintendent 
of highways, if the county commissioners care to ap¬ 
point such an officer. The county has a tax of at least 
one mill (that is, one mill on every dollar, or one 
tenth of one per cent of the value of all the property 
assessed in the county) for a “Road and Bridge Fund.” 
But since all bridges costing SI00 or over are county 
bridges, this fund is usually all spent on bridges, and 
is not applied to road making. So the small bridges 





GOOD ROADS 


197 


and culverts and the real road making are left to the 
township. 

The three township supervisors have the supervision 
and care of the roads in their township, the custody of 
the road machinery (if any is bought), and the making 
of plans and specifications for good roads. The usual 
method is to turn the work over to “highway over¬ 
seers/’ one for each of the four or five road districts 
into which the township is divided. These “highway 



Steel Bridge 


overseers ” are allowed but $ 2 a day for their road work, 
and so cannot afford to give much serious time to it. 
In some cases the township supervisors have got rid 
of the local road overseers, not wanting to bother with 
them. The township road taxes, unlike the school tax, 
the poor tax, and all other taxes, may be paid in labor 
or in money. The other taxes must be paid in money. 
The township road tax consists of (a) a road poll tax 
of $1.50, and (b) a road tax, levied by the town meet- 








198 WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 


ing, which may be as high as 10 mills on the property 
in the township, or may be as low as the voters please. 
In these two ways much money could be raised; but, 
as a matter of fact, very little is raised, often none at 
all. For these taxes, which may be paid in money or 
labor, are generally paid in labor. But the labor that 
is put forth when the tax is 11 worked out” is not usually 
very valuable or beneficial to the roads. A United 
States road expert says: 



Beautiful Roadside used as Dumping Ground 


“You know that the men who work the road, as a 
rule, know nothing about it, shirk responsibilities, and 
are not amenable to discipline, and generally leave the 
road worse than it was before they touched it. In 
this criticism I am not blaming the men but the system; 
it has grown up a venerable institution handed down 
from generation to generation, a custom made mellow 
with traditions of the old time frolics when our fathers 
l -worked the roads’.” 





GOOD ROADS 


199 


Changes Proposed. —Civil engineers, farmers, and 
writers have all suggested improvements in our road 
system. A few of the more important suggestions are 
the following:— 

(1) Central supervision should be exercised over all 
road work, as is done in railroads and in our school 
system. Railroads have their roadbed kept in good 
condition by having the road divided into sections, a 
foreman or boss over each section of five or six miles, 
and a superintend¬ 
ent over all the 
foremen. In this 
way the work is 
done according to 
a uniform plan, and 
one section is kept 
in as good condi¬ 
tion as the next. 

Under our separate township system a road cross¬ 
ing several townships may be kept in good condi¬ 
tion in one township but in very poor condition in 
the next, because there is no one superintendent over 
the whole road as there is on the railroad. Each town¬ 
ship may make or spoil the road as it sees fit. 

(2) All road taxes, like other taxes, should be paid 
in money . Then these taxes should be expended like 
other taxes in hiring only persons qualified to do the 
work desired. Compare for instance the school tax 
and the poor tax with the road tax. No man is allowed 
to enter the schoolroom and teach for a few days to 





200 WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 



“work out” his school tax, or to take some pauper 
into his home and feed and clothe him for a while to 
work out his poor tax, neither should a man be per¬ 
mitted to work out his road tax. 

(3) Another suggestion in case farmers do not pay 
their road tax in money is that they should be pro¬ 
vided with the King split log drag, one for each farmer, 


Road Made with the Drag shown on page 199 

and that a farmer should then work out his taxes. He 
should work out his road tax, however, not by working 
the road once during the entire year, but by dragging 
it for an hour or two after every rain, when the road 
needs working. In this way the road would be kept 
worked all the time, would always be in good condi¬ 
tion, and would gradually get better from year to year 
as the arched crown formed on it. This drag and its 
workings are shown in the illustrations on pp. 201 and 
202 . 





GOOD ROADS 


201 



Drag with Platform Removed 


Drag in Use 



Road before Dragging 



Road after Dragging 



















202 WORKINGS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 




Plan, Front and Side View of Plank Drag 









































GOOD ROADS 


203 


(4) Another suggestion is to permit the farmers to 
work out the road taxes somewhat in the manner 
employed in Norway, a country famous for its good 
roads. Work is done on the road by the farmer, but 
only where and when needed and under competent 
engineering direction. 

(5) A method in use in our neighboring State of 
Minnesota and in other States is known as the State 
aid system. Many thoughtful persons commend this 
system to our own State. Under this system the State 
itself spends many thousands, sometimes millions, of 
dollars, aiding the counties and the townships in mak¬ 
ing good roads. The State sees that the work is done 
according to plans made by good road engineers. 

Progress Made. —Many experiments have been made 
in good road construction in our State. Road engineers 
from the Division of Good Roads at Washington have 
built stretches of gravel roads as models; boards of 
township supervisors have likewise built some stretches 
of excellent gravel roads; commercial clubs, automo¬ 
bile clubs, and other organizations have taken up the 
matter for discussion and action. And finally our State 
has a State Engineer at Bismarck, a part of whose 
duties it is to experiment on road construction at the 
capital city and to determine what materials are best 
and cheapest for good roads in our own State. 

Questions on the Text 

1. Show the need and value of good roads. 

2. Can our road system be considered as a State, county, or town¬ 

ship system? 


204 WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 


3. Show exactly the relation of the county and the township to 

good roads. 

4. Explain cash and labor systems of paying road taxes. 

5. What has a government expert said about the custom of “ work¬ 

ing the road”? 

6. Name four proposed changes in our road system. 

7. Give a short discussion of each plan. 

8. What progress has been made in our State towards good 

roads? 

9. How does Bryce account for our bad roads? 

Questions Suggested by the Text 

1. What do you consider the best plan for getting good roads? 

2. Problem. A has a good farm of 160 acres, with a half mile of 

poor road in front. A model road in his community can be 
built for $1,000 a mile. If this expense is borne equally by 
farmers on both sides of the road for a distance of one half 
mile back from the highway, what will be A’s share of the cost? 
How much will this be per acre of his farm? Will it make his 
farm increase in value per acre more than this amount? 

3. One road expert estimates that $ 5 an acre spent for good roads 

will increase the land value by $ 9 an acre. If you live on a 
farm, estimate the total effect on its value of such an increase. 

4. If a township levies a road tax of 10 mills, what will this tax 

amount to on a farm of 320 acres assessed at $2,000? How 
much per acre? Do you think this amount is large enough 
to secure very big results? 

5. What was the total road tax in your community last year 

(county and township tax)? Was it paid in money or in 
labor? 

6. Secure a copy of the State Highway Commission Report from 

Minnesota or Washington, or any of the following States 
which now have such a department—California, Colorado, 
Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, 
Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, 
New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, 
Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia—and describe the road 
system in that State. 


GOOD ROADS 


205 


References 

Reports of State Highway Commissions mentioned in question 6. 

Reports of Division of Roads, Department of Agriculture, Washing¬ 
ton, D. C. 

“Good Roads, An Outline of State Road Systems,” Compiled by 
Sveinbjorn Johnson, Legislative Reference Librarian, Bis¬ 
marck, 1910. 

“The Use of the Split Log Drag on Earth Roads” (a pamphlet to be 
had free by writing to U. S. Department of Agriculture, Wash¬ 
ington, D. C. Ask for Farmers’ Bulletin No. 321). 


CHAPTER XV 


PUBLIC HEALTH 

“The aim of all public health work is the prevention of disease.” 
Bulletin, Department of Health, City of Chicago, April 22, 1911. 

“Sanitation, which has become so important a department of Eng¬ 
lish local administration, plays a small part in the rural districts of 
America.” Bryce, “American Commonwealth,” Vol. I, Ch. 49. 

The most priceless thing in any community is the 
good health of its people. While all people must die, 
yet in any community we find that more deaths occur 
among the babies and little children than among the 
old people. And many, perhaps most, of these deaths 
could be prevented, if the simple rules of health were 
only known and followed. Of course the family itself 
and the family doctor must always hold first place in 
taking care of the health of the people. Yet as the fam¬ 
ily is not always entirely responsible for the prevention 
and cure of disease, it is well that the State and local 
governments do much to help by means of the State, 
county, city, village, and township boards of health, 
the State Public Health Laboratory and the State Tu¬ 
berculosis Commission. The activities of these bodies 
are directed chiefly to the control of contagious disease 
and the prevention of disease. 

Control of Contagious Disease. —Formerly when an 
epidemic, such as smallpox, diphtheria, typhoid fever, 
206 


PUBLIC HEALTH 207 

or scarlet fever, got a start in a community, the disease 
ran its course, carrying many helpless people to their 
untimely death. Now if a disease is contagious or 
infectious, the first step is to prevent it from spread¬ 
ing to other persons. This the board of health does 
or should do promptly and thoroughly. The board 
may prevent the spread 
of disease in these ways: 

(1) by vaccination, in 
case of smallpox; (2) by 
strict quarantine; (3) 
by removal of the pa- 
tient to a detention 
hospital; or (4) by 
fumigating and disin¬ 
fecting rooms, clothing, 
etc., exposed to the dis¬ 
ease germs. 

Prevention of Dis¬ 
ease. —Boards of health 
do all in their power 
to prevent sickness, by 
causing the removal of 

filth, nuisances, and Quarantine Notice 

dead animals, or other 

causes of contamination. They prevent the placing 
of dead animals in flowing streams and the consequent 
pollution of the water. They give warnings when to 
boil water to kill the typhoid germs and how to prevent 
tuberculosis. They sometimes inspect the milk to see 



















208 WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 


whether it is free from typhoid germs. They also 
inspect dairy cows to see whether they are affected 
with tuberculosis. They often prevent diphtheria by 
supplying antitoxin. They also, in some cases, secure 

medical inspection 
of schools, to detect 
and cure mouth- 
breathing, ade¬ 
noids, faulty teeth, 
and defects of the 
eye and ear. In 
some cities a trained 
nurse known as a 
“visiting nurse 7 ’ is 
employed to visit 
homes and assist, 
by her skill and her suggestions, in taking care of the 
sick and preventing the spread of disease. 

In some cases a board of health issues bulletins or 
other publications, instructing the people about such 
subjects as the carrying of typhoid fever by the common 
fly. For instance, we learn from these bulletins that 
there is but one way to get typhoid fever,—the germ 
must be taken into the stomach. This means that it is 
eaten with our food or drunk in our water or milk. 
Most commonly it is in the water and milk. The ty¬ 
phoid germ attacks the inner walls of the intestines, 
making them so thin that they may break and cause 
death. The bulletins also teach that this little ty¬ 
phoid germ can come only from one source,—a typhoid 






PUBLIC HEALTH 


209 


patient; and from this source the germ can come only 
in two possible ways, that is, from the bowels or kid¬ 
neys of the patient. In carrying this germ from the 
sick to the food and drink of the well, the fly is the 
most common agent. Hence boards of health are edu¬ 
cating the people against this small but powerful 
enemy. 

Statistics are also published by health boards, con¬ 
cerning deaths from diseases, so that the people in one 



Detention Hospital 


State may compare their health conditions with those 
in other States. 

Public Health Machinery. —The machinery for carry¬ 
ing out the public health work of the State and local 
government is the following: (1) State Board of Health, 
consisting of three men, one of whom must be a doc¬ 
tor; (2) State Public Health Laboratory at Grand 
Forks, in connection with the University, and the two 
Civics N. Dak.—14 






















210 WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 


branches at Bismarck and Minot; (3) State Tuber¬ 
culosis Sanitarium in the Turtle Mountains; (4) county 
board of health, consisting of three men, one of whom 
must be a doctor; (5) city health officer, who must be 
a doctor; (6) village trustees, and (7) township super¬ 
visors, both the latter sitting as “boards of health/’ 
but not required by law to number doctors among 
their members. 

By carefully studying the above, it will be seen that 
very few men are required to give their whole time and 
attention to the public health question. Perhaps it 
would be wiser for the people to spend more money for 
purposes of public health, thus enabling a few more 
experts to give their whole time to this important but 
neglected branch of our local government. 


Questions on the Text 

1. Show the importance of good health. 

2. Who is chiefly responsible for the good health of a community? 

3. What means is used by our government to protect the health? 

4. What are the two most important things done by the State and 

local government in the matter of health? 

5. Compare the control of contagious disease now with its check 

in former times. 

6. In what ways is the spread of disease prevented? 

7. What may health boards do to prevent disease? 

8. What, for instance, is some of the published information about 

typhoid fever? 

9. What sort of statistics are published? 

10. What machinery have we for carrying out the public health 
regulations mentioned above? Is it enough? 


PUBLIC HEALTH 


211 


Questions Suggested by the Text 

1. Has your school ever had any medical inspection? 

2. Are there any mouth-breathers in your community? 

3. Describe an example of quarantine which you have seen, or 

which you know about. Do you know of a case where lack 
of quarantine has led to the death of a person? 

4. Write an essay on the work of the Public Health Laboratory. 

A printed copy of the reports of this public health agency 
may be had by making an application therefor. 

5. Has there been any case of typhoid in your community? If 

so, what was the cause? 

6. Has there ever been a case of tuberculosis (“consumption”) in 

your community? Whence came the germs of the disease? 

7. If possible, have your local physician talk to the school on the 

subject of germ diseases, and how these germs are carried 
and how killed. 

8. Write an essay on the subject, “The fly the most dangerous ani¬ 

mal on earth.” 

9. The vital statistics for the State for March, 1911 (as published 

by the State Board of Health), are as follows: 


Births. 966 

Deaths. 324 

Contagious diseases for the month: 

tuberculosis. 10 

smallpox . 7 

typhoid fever . 12 

diphtheria . 22 

scarlet fever. 33 

measles . 14 

whooping cough. 1 

other diseases . 5 


Compile a similar table for your county; for your township. 
Compile a similar table for your school district for the past 
year. 

10. The London “ Lancet,” the leading medical journal of the world, 
says that the best and simplest fly-killer is a weak solution 
of formaldehyde and water (two teaspoonfuls to the pint). 












212 


WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 


Place in plates or saucers throughout the house. Ten cents 
worth of formaldehyde will last an ordinary family all sum¬ 
mer. It has no offensive smell, is fatal to disease organisms, 
and is practically non-poisonous except to insects (From 
“The House Fly as a Carrier of Disease”, by Edward 
Hatch, in the Annals for March, 1911. Vol. 37, p. 422). 
What method is used in your schoolhouse or your home to 
get rid of flies? Have you ever tried the above remedy? 

References 

Public Health Movement. The Annals of the American Academy 
of Political and Social Science, March, 1911. 

Allen, “Civics and Health.” 

Dunn, “The Community and the Citizen,” Ch. 9. 

Fairlie, “Local Government in Counties, Townships, and Villages,” 
Ch. 14. 


CHAPTER XVI 


CHARITY AND POOR RELIEF 

“We begin with the new view of charity. Possibly no other human 
relation depends so much upon the point of view. The mendicant’s 
alms, the pauper’s maintenance, the impostor’s largess, the bitter bread 
of degrading dependence, gifts even to a worthy cause wrung from an 
uneasy conscience, and that kind of charity which is but a sorry sub¬ 
stitute for justice denied, are all so many aspects of charity which tend 
to make it a mockery among men. There is another view. In an im¬ 
perfect world, full of adverse conditions which are in large part an evil 
inheritance, the new view makes of charity a type of anticipatory jus¬ 
tice. The new view is that charity may lighten an unreasonable and 
intolerable burden, or transfer it to broader and stronger shoulders; 
that it may bring opportunity to the child of an unfavorable heredity 
and an unfavorable environment; that it may deal not only with in¬ 
dividuals who suffer, but with social conditions which tend to per¬ 
petuate crime, pauperism, and degeneracy.” Edward T. Devine, in 
the “Survey,” April 20, 1907. 

Charity.—The county commissioners are by law 
“overseers of the poor.” The law further says that 
each county “ shall relieve and support all poor and 
indigent persons residing therein whenever they shall 
be in need thereof.” For this purpose of “relieving 
and supporting” the poor, the county commissioners 
usually levy a small poor tax. They keep a record of 
persons receiving aid, known as a “Poor Book,” or, in 
popular language, a “pauper roll.” Some counties 
have a county poorhouse and here those unfortunate 
persons known as “permanent charges” must receive 

relief. This is called indoor relief. Outdoor relief is 

213 


214 


WOK KINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 


temporary relief given out to persons in the form of 
food, clothing, fuel, and so on, which the needy person 
may use in his own home. This method is easiest for the 
pauper, but may encourage pauperism instead of cur¬ 
ing it. On the other hand, indoor relief causes many 
worthy poor to suffer in silence rather than undergo 



A Well-kept Poorhouse 


the shame of going to the poorhouse to live with pau¬ 
pers. Indeed, the proper care of the poor is one of the 
hard problems in our local government. 

The County Poor. —Temporary relief is often granted 
to these unhappy people who consist of three classes: 
(1) the aged and the helpless, who are too old to take 
care of themselves; (2) the orphan children who are 
too young to help themselves; and (3) helpless women 



CHARITY AND POOR RELIEF 


215 


(either widows or deserted wives) left with small children 
and without adequate means of support. 

The County Afflicted.—The insane and the feeble¬ 
minded of the county are not neglected; for although 
the county itself has no place for them, the State has 
an institution for the feebleminded at Grafton, and a 
hospital for the insane at Jamestown. The county must 
contribute a certain amount of money for each of its 
residents undergoing treatment in these institutions. 

The blind and the deaf and dumb are also well pro¬ 
vided for by the State. There is a school for the blind 
at Bathgate, and for the deaf and dumb at Devils Lake. 
In this way the county is relieved of the difficult care of 
the blind and the deaf mute. 

We see by the foregoing discussion that the State has 
provided for all classes of its citizens, for the strong and 
the weak, the sick and the well, the lawbreakers and 
the law abiding, and for the defective and dependent 
classes. 

Questions on the Text 

1. Who are the overseers of the poor in North Dakota? 

2. What is the “Poor Book”? 

3. Who live in the county poorhouse? 

4. Define indoor relief and outdoor relief. 

5. Give the arguments for and against each kind. 

6. What are the three classes of county poor? 

7. Who are the county afflicted and where are they treated? 

8. How are the blind, and the deaf and dumb cared for? 

9 Does the State neglect any class of citizens? 

Questions Suggested by the Text 

1. Does your county give indoor or outdoor relief, or both? 


216 


WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 


2. If your county has a poorhouse, answer the following: Are 
there any children in it? Any old people? Is this a good 
place for children? 


References 

Fairlie, “Local Government in Counties, Townships, and Villages,” 
Ch. 13. 

“The Survey,” a weekly magazine, published in New York City. 


CHAPTER XVII 


POLICE AND JUSTICE 

“It was the old view that crime is a constant factor in society, re¬ 
sulting from natural depravity or from persistent personal causes. It 
is the new view that political, economic, and social institutions, and 
especially the prevailing method of administering justice and the penal 
system, have much to do with the amount and kind of crime.” Edward 
T. Devine, in the “Survey,” April 20, 1907. 

Important Function. —One of the most important 
functions of local government is the preservation of 
law and order. The public peace must not be dis¬ 
turbed. For instance, A and B meet in the public high¬ 
way, quarrel, and finally fight. A gets the worst of it, 
and has B arrested for “ assault and battery.” The 
judge fines B ten dollars. A, since he has been “ as¬ 
saulted” and “battered,” expects to have the fine 
paid to him. But no—the fine goes to the State, for 
the State has suffered more than A. The peace and 
dignity of the State have been disturbed. The State 
has provided the necessary officers for the arrest, 
trial, and punishment of every lawbreaker. In the 
cities we find uniformed policemen to make the ar¬ 
rests. In the rural districts, such as we are describ¬ 
ing in this chapter, police work is also done, although 
not by blue-coated policemen but by other officers. 
At the county seat of each county there is a sheriff 
217 


218 WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 

ready to arrest anyone in any part of the county 
upon a proper warrant. Likewise in each township 
the town meeting elects or may elect two constables 
with power to arrest disturbers of the peace. And 
last of all, the village has its marshal, with full power 
to arrest and to use the necessary force in making the 
arrest, even though it be the use of firearms. The 
work of the local courts in trying and convicting these 
offenders has already been described. The county 

maintains its court¬ 
house and jail, and may 
add, if it sees fit, a 
workhouse for the pur¬ 
pose o f putting i t s 
prisoners to work at 
hard labor. A jail 
without a workhouse 
may get the reputation 
among tramps and 
petty criminals of be¬ 
ing a pleasant stop¬ 
ping place in the win¬ 
ter time, with warm 
quarters, plenty of food, and nothing to do. The 
township may, if it so votes at the annual town meet¬ 
ing, erect a calaboose for the confinement of drunk and 
disorderly persons. The village, too, has power to erect 
a lockup for the confinement of disorderly persons, 
vagrants, tramps, and idle persons convicted of violat¬ 
ing any village ordinance, and “to prevent and sup- 



Uniformed Policeman 





POLICE AND JUSTICE 


219 


press riots, affrays, noises, disturbances, and disorderly 
assemblies in any public or private place.’’ 

The State has provided a Reform School at Mandan 
where lawbreakers, under the age of eighteen, or in¬ 
corrigible children upon written complaint of their 
parents or guardians, may be sent by the district judge. 

The State, as we see by the above, has provided for 
police officers for the arrest of any lawbreaker in the 
State, and in any county, township, city, or village. 
Courts of justice are likewise provided to determine 
what is just in any case that may be brought before 
them. The people are thus put to great expense to 
maintain jails, calabooses, lockups, courthouses, and 
officers of police and justice, in order that a few bad 
members of society may be restrained from doing in¬ 
jury to the other members, and from outraging the 
peace and dignity of the State. 

Questions on the Text 

1. Show the importance of law and order. 

2. Who gets the fine imposed by a judge? Why? 

3. Name the police officer in each division of local government. 

4. How are offenders tried? 

5. What provision is made for imprisoning a lawbreaker by the 

county? By the township? By the village? 

6. Where is the State Reform School, and what is its purpose? 

7. Why do the people spend so much for police and justice? 

Questions Suggested by the Text 

1. Who is the sheriff of your county? The marshal of your 

village? 

2. Name the township constables in your township, if you live in a 

township. 


220 WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 


3. Has your county jail a workhouse in connection with it? 

4. Debate: “Crime is more prevalent in the country (in pro¬ 

portion to the number of inhabitants) than in the city.” 

5. To what extent is crime due to intemperance? 

References 

Hart, “Actual Government,” Ch. 30. 

Wright, “Practical Sociology,” Chs. 21, 22. 

Reports of the Warden of the State Penitentiary to the Governor, 
Bismarck. 

The Survey. 


CHAPTER XVIII 


LOCAL FINANCE AND TAXATION 

“As the contribution to the revenues of the State or county, leviable 
within that area, is proportioned to the amount and value of taxable 
property situated within it, the local assessors have, equally with the 
property owners, an obvious motive for valuing on a low scale, for by 
doing so they relieve their community of part of its burden. The 
State, accordingly, strives in divers ways to check and correct them, 
sometimes by creating what is known as a Board of Equalization, 
which compares and revises the valuations made by the various local 
officers, with the aim of having taxable property in each locality equally 
and fairly valued, and made thereby to bear its due share of public 
burdens. Similarly a county has often an equalization board to super¬ 
vise and adjust the valuations of the towns and cities within its limits. 
However, the existence of such boards does not overcome the difficulty 
of securing a really equal valuation, and the honest county or town 
which puts its property at a fair value suffers by paying more than its 
share.” Bryce, “American Commonwealth,” Vol. I, Ch. 43. 

Much money is required each year for carrying out 
the various functions of local and State government. 
Each year indeed a little more money is needed than 
the preceding year. How is this money raised? Who 
spends it? These two interesting and important ques¬ 
tions are easily answered. 

Almost all of this money is raised by taxation. In 
our local government the amount of money spent and 
the consequent amount of the tax levy are determined 
by the following persons:— 


221 


222 WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 


County .county commissioners 

City.city council 

Village .trustees 

Township.voters of township in town meeting 

School district.board 


For raising this money a very complete set of ma¬ 
chinery has been formed; but it is difficult to get it 
to work well. There are three tasks which this machin¬ 
ery is designed to perform,—assessment, equalization, 
and tax collection: 

Assessment of Property. —Since, in our State, taxes 
are paid on the property a person has, it is neces¬ 
sary to have on the official county records a list of 
each person’s property. Hence a local assessor is 
elected in each township (or village) for one year, at a 
salary of $60 for twenty days’ work. He must canvass 
his district every spring, see all the land and buildings 
(that is, real estate), and “assess” this property. In 
other words, he must place it on his books at its full 
value in money. This is a hard thing to do, for even 
the owner does not know the true value. The assessor 
is supposed also to find all the personal property and to 
place this, too, in his book with its full value in money. 
But this it is clearly impossible to do. This property 
includes everything but real estate. Some personal 
property, such as money, notes, mortgages, diamonds, 
etc., it is most difficult for the assessor even to find; 
and while it is easy enough to find horses and wagons 
and household furniture, it is a big task to value these 
things at their “full and true value in money.” To 







LOCAL FINANCE AND TAXATION 


223 


find all personal property and value it all at one hun¬ 
dred per cent is, as stated above, impossible. The law, 
with this difficulty in view, has provided for the second 
step,—equalization. 

Equalization .—When the local assessor’s work is 
done, his books go before the “town board of review” 
(the township supervisors) for examination. They are 
to equalize matters between the individuals of the 
township. They meet for a day and wait for people 
to come in and complain of being over assessed, or of 
some neighbor’s being under assessed. Few people do 
come in—usually none at all—for they do not really 
know how their neighbors are assessed, and hence do 
not know whether their own assessment is too high 
or too low. Hence few defects in the assessor’s works 
are corrected here. The board adjourns. It is then 
too late to correct these errors elsewhere. A poor man 
who happens to be assessed more than his rich neigh¬ 
bor has therefore no real redress. A month later 
the county commissioners meet, as a “county board 
of equalization,” to compare the totals of one town¬ 
ship with the totals of the other townships in the 
county. They raise or lower certain classes of prop¬ 
erty by townships, but do not alter individual as¬ 
sessments. A month later, in August, the “State 
board of equalization” meets to compare the totals 
returned by the different counties in the State. This 
board must raise or lower whole counties at a time. 
Thus they may raise farm lands 10 per cent in one 
county, and lower them 25 per cent in another county. 


224 


WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 


This is the final step in “ equalization of assessment.” 
On the assessed values as now left, taxes must be paid. 

Collection .—The county treasurer collects all the 
taxes. He then turns over the State taxes to the State, 
the city taxes to the city, the township taxes to the 
township, and so on. If taxes are not paid when due, 
heavy penalties are added each month. Finally, if 
necessary, the sheriff may sell the property for taxes. 

By the description just given we see how the real and 
personal property of the community is assessed and 
taxed. Railroads and a few similar big corporations, 
doing business often in many counties, are assessed 
in a different manner. This method will be described 
in Chapter XXII. 

Questions on the Text 

1. How is the money raised to carry on local government? 

2. Who tax the people in each of the five subdivisions of the State? 

3. The general property tax, so called, requires what three steps 

in its administration? 

4. Tell how property is assessed, and show some of the defects of 

the assessment. 

5. What machinery exists for curing the defects of a bad assess¬ 

ment? 

6. Discuss carefully the workings of this machinery in the town¬ 

ship, county, and State. 

7. Who collects the taxes, and how? 

Questions Suggested by the Text 

1. How could a State raise money without taxation? 

2. Should a State depend entirely on the property tax, or should 

it make use of an income tax? An inheritance tax? 

3. Does “equalization” equalize? Can you show why it does not 

and can not? 


LOCAL FINANCE AND TAXATION 


225 


4. Can you suggest any improvement in the system? 

5. Can you assess the furniture, pictures, etc., in your own home 

at their true value in money? Can anybody? 

References 

Bryce, “American Commonwealth” (1910 edition), Vol. I, Ch. 43. 
Hart, “Actual Government,” Chs. 21, 22. 

Fairlie, “Local Government in Counties, Townships, and Villages,” 
Ch. 15. 

“Permanent State Tax Commissions,” pamphlet compiled by Svein- 
bjorn Johnson, Legislative Reference Librarian, Bismarck, 
1910. 


Civics N. Dak.—15 


CHAPTER XIX 


EDUCATION 

“Promote then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for 
the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of 
government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public 
opinion should be enlightened.” Washington’s “Farewell Address,” 
1796. 

Our Educational System.—Our State has provided a 
complete system of free, public education, free alike to 
rich and poor, to the taxpayers and to the one who pays 
no taxes. It is for the welfare of the State that all be 
educated, for our country has more to fear from the 
ballots of ignorant voters than from the bayonets of 
foreign soldiers. Our greatest statesmen, from George 
Washington down, have agreed on this point. Our 
public school system represents sixteen years of school 
work, as follows: eight years of common school training; 
four years of high school; and four years of work in the 
State University or Agricultural College. Or the pupil, 
having finished the high school, is ready to enter upon 
various other lines of higher education furnished by the 
State, such as a two-year course in the manual train¬ 
ing school, or in the school of science, or in the normal 
school or school of forestry. The ambitious pupil does 
indeed prolong his educational work beyond the sixteen- 
year period named above. He may pursue a post- 
226 


EDUCATION 


227 


graduate course in the State University from one to 
three years, if he so desires. The State is making care¬ 
ful provision that “ public opinion should be enlight¬ 
ened.” 

The School District.—There are three classes of 



Shack Schoolhouse of the Frontier 


districts. (1) In the country we find the common 
school district. Five counties in the older part of the 
State—the Red River Valley—have the old-fashioned 
common district system, according to which the district 
is only two or three miles square, with its one school- 
house near the center. The modern new-fashioned 
district is called the township system, for here the 
school district is the same size as the township (six 
miles square), and has usually three, four, or even 
five schoolhouses in it. But latest and best of all is 





228 ‘ WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 

the Rural Consolidated School, consisting of one good, 
large, central building, which takes the place of several 
poor, small, scattered buildings. This is now in use in 
many township districts. It has better trained teachers, 
and better attendance of pupils, with less exposure to 
the weather, and hence better work and better health. 

For the other two classes of school districts we must 
look to the cities. They are (2) the special and (3) 

the independent dis¬ 
tricts. These two 
classes of districts are 
much alike: they have 
power to conduct a 
high school; and have 


First Rural Consolidated 
School 

a “board of education” 
instead of a school 
board. In the inde¬ 
pendent district, found 
in such cities as Fargo 
and Grand Forks, the 
board of education has power to issue bonds. In the 
other two classes of districts, the voters themselves 
must decide the important question of a bond issue. 

Flags.—The law requires every school district to 
have a flag for every schoolhouse in the district, and 
to keep the flag flying each school day, if the weather 
permits. 









EDUCATION 


229 


Free Textbooks.—Many districts furnish free text¬ 
books to the pupils. A school district must furnish 
the textbooks, (1) if two thirds of the voters of the dis¬ 
trict petition for it, or (2) if the school board so orders. 

The School Board.—The size of the school board 
depends on the kind of district, three persons for the 
common district, five for the special, and five or more 
for the independent district, depending on the number 
of wards in the city. A school board must look after 
the business side of the school—see that enough money 
is forthcoming to pay the teacher, furnish fuel and 
supplies, and provide good school buildings. This 
board has also the duty of hiring teachers, and, in 
case of necessity, of dismissing them. 

The Teacher .—The qualifications of a teacher are: 
a good moral character; age at least eighteen years; a 
teacher’s certificate. Certificates are of three grades,— 
second grade, first grade, and State certificate. The 
second grade is the lowest grade, and $45 a month is 
the lowest salary paid, according to law. 

Teachers’ Institute.—A teachers’ institute is held 
every summer in each county, or in each group of 
counties that combine for joint-institute work. The 
county superintendent and the State superintendent 
are the directors of the institute work, and an expert 
educator is put in charge as conductor. Here the 
teacher receives both information and stimulation. It 
is the duty of each teacher, who is not already a col¬ 
lege graduate, to attend the institute. 

Branches to be Taught.—Teachers in the common 


230 WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 

schools must teach the following branches: orthography, 
reading, spelling, writing, arithmetic, language lessons, 
English grammar, geography, United States history, 
civil government, physiology and hygiene, with special 
instruction concerning the nature of alcoholic drinks 
and other narcotics and their effects upon the human 
system. 

The Pupil.—The law provides for compulsory edu¬ 
cation for all children of school age. School age means 
the years from eight to sixteen. Every child of school 
age must be kept in the public school in each year during 
the entire time the public schools of his district are in 
session, unless the child is in some parochial or private 
school where the same branches are taught, or the 
child’s labor is necessary to support the family, or the 
child already has a knowledge of the common branches. 

Child Labor Law.—The State Child Labor Law aims 
to keep children from the evil of child labor in factory 
and sweat shop, an evil common to some of our sister 
States. This law forbids the employment of any child 
under fourteen years of age in any mine, factory, work¬ 
shop, store, business office, telegraph office, or hotel. 
Children of this age should be in school, preparing 
themselves for future efficiency. 

The Support of Schools.—To keep up our magnifi¬ 
cent school system and build new schoolhouses as 
needed, there are three sources of income: (1) Taxation; 
(2) State Tuition Fund; (3) Borrowing. 

(1) First comes taxation. Each school district has 
its own school tax, which may be as high as 30 mills 


EDUCATION 


231 


(that is, three per cent of the assessed valuation of the 
district). This is the highest tax, which the farmer or 
the dweller in the city pays. The county also levies 
and collects a school tax and turns the money back to 
the school districts. The “county fund” is made up 
of two items, namely, a $1 school poll on each tax¬ 
payer, and a 2 mill tax on all property in the county. 



City High School 


Hence, in rare cases, we may actually find a taxpayer 
with a school tax as high as 32 mills plus SI. 

(2) The second source of income is the State Tuition 
Fund , which involves no taxation whatever. This fund 
is made up in a very interesting way, and depends 
mostly on the State school lands. The State received 
2,500,000 acres of school land as a gift from the Federal 
government, as part of the land grant, when Dakota 

















232 WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 


Territory became a State. This land is either sold or 
rented. If rented, the rent goes to the State Tuition 
Fund. If sold, the money is loaned out at 4, 5, or 6 per 
cent interest, and the interest goes into this fund. 
Since the land sells at from $10 to $50 an acre, it is 
easy to see that the income from the school lands 
is very important. Some day this land will all be 
sold, making an enormous amount of money, nearly 
$50,000,000, to be known as a permanent school fund. 
But only the interest from this fund can ever be used. 
To five men is due the honor and credit of managing 
the State school lands and of investing all money 
from the sale of these lands. These men form a board 
called the Board of University and School Lands. 
They are: the governor, superintendent of public in¬ 
struction, attorney-general, secretary of state, and 
auditor. 

(3) Borrowing has been mentioned as a source of 
income. This source is used only to secure expensive 
improvements, such as the purchase of more land, 
erection of new buildings, etc. Hence the actual sup¬ 
port and running expenses of our schools must depend 
on the first two sources, namely, taxation and the State 
Tuition Fund. 


Questions on the Text 

1. Describe our educational system. Show the need of free schools. 

2. How many grades of work are found in our school system? 

3. Discuss the school district; three classes of districts; two kinds 

of country districts; two classes of city districts; the con¬ 
solidated school and its advantages. 


EDUCATION 


233 


4. What is said about flags for schools? 

5. What is the law regarding free textbooks? 

6. Discuss the school board: size; two classes of duties. 

7. Discuss the teacher: qualifications; salary. 

8. What is a teachers’ institute? How managed? Objects? 

9. What branches are taught in our common schools? 

10. What is “school age”? Compulsory education? What is the 

law in this State? 

11. State our Child Labor Law, and show its benefits. 

12. From what three sources do schools derive support? 

13. Which is the most important source? Why? 

14. Explain “county school fund”; its two sources. 

15. What is the State Tuition Fund? From what two sources is it 

derived principally? 

1G. Show clearly the difference between the State Tuition Fund 
and the permanent school fund. 

17. How is the permanent school fund managed? 

18. When is borrowing used by a school district? 

Questions Suggested by the Text 

1. Prepare a table showing all the sources of support for public 

schools. 

2. Prepare a statement similar to the one below, showing the re¬ 

ceipts and expenditures for your own district for last year. 
(Get the statement from the clerk of the school board or 
from the county superintendent). 

Statement, Americus School District, No. 3 
July 1, 1905, to June 30, 1906 
Receipts 


Balance from last year. S 15.22 

State Tuition fund. 127.80 

County fund. 117.36 

District Tax. 230.00 


$490.38 







234 WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 


Expenditures 


Permanent improvements. $ 8.50 

Teachers’ wages. 315.00 

School officers. 43.00 

Incidentals. 49.00 


$415.50 

Balance on hand. $74.88 

3. Problem. When the permanent school fund is $50,000,000, 

how much will it produce for the State Tuition Fund if in¬ 
vested at 4 per cent? 

4. Is it better for the State to sell its lands and invest the money 

at interest, or to keep the lands and rent them? Be prepared 
to give reasons for your answer. 

5. What is a farmer’s school tax on a farm of 160 acres, assessed 

at $1,600, when the rate of the school tax levy is 30 mills? 

References 

Fairlie, “Local Government in Counties, Townships, and Villages,” 
Ch. 12. 

Dunn, “The Community and the Citizen,” Ch. 15. 

Bryce, “The American Commonwealth,” (1910 edition), Vol. I, 
Ch. 49. 

Reports of State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Issued 
biennially, Bismarck. 








CHAPTER XX 


COUNTY, TOWNSHIP, AND VILLAGE 

“Happy your great country, Sir, for being so warmly addicted to 
that great principle of self-government. Upon this foundation your 
fathers raised a home to freedom more glorious than the world had 
ever seen. Upon this foundation you have developed it to a living 
wonder of the world. Happy your great country, Sir, that it was se¬ 
lected by the blessing of the Lord, to prove the glorious practicability 
of a federative Union of many sovereign States, all conserving their 
State rights and their self-government, and yet united in one. Every 
star beaming with its own luster, but all together one constellation on 
mankind’s canopy.” Louis Kossuth, “Speech before Congress,” 
December 30, 1851. 


Introductory.—We have now made a brief survey 
of the six functions of our local government,—(1) good 
roads, (2) public health, (3) charity and poor relief, 
(4) local police and justice, (5) local finance and taxa¬ 
tion, and (6) education. For carrying out these func¬ 
tions there are various organs, such as elected officials, 
appointed officials, committees, boards, etc. These 
are found, as we shall now see, in the various sub¬ 
divisions of our local government. Some of the func¬ 
tions of local government are performed in *two or more 
local subdivisions at the same time. Thus the matter 
of good roads is a duty falling to both the township 
and county, but mostly to the township. Charity is 
left to the county. Public health is a function of local 

235 


236 WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 

government that is now looked after by the county, 
township, village, and also the city. 

In this chapter we examine three subdivisions of 
our local government,—(1) the county, (2) the town¬ 
ship, and (3) the village,—and study the machinery or 
organs, that they use for carrying out the work in¬ 
trusted to them. 

The County.—A new county can be organized only 
by a vote of the people in the district concerned. Thus 
to divide a big county, the voters in the proposed new 
county must petition the county commissioners, and 
the matter is then submitted to a vote of the whole 
county. The location of the county seat is a matter 
of great interest, and is frequently the source of much 
bitterness and heartburning. It is also left entirely to 
the voters of the county. The county seat can be 
moved to a new town any time the voters so desire, that 
is, (a) provided that two thirds of the electors so vote 
at the general election, and (b) provided also that the 
question can not come up for a vote oftener than once 
in ten years. 

County Commissioners.—Of course most of the laws 
that govern a county and every other subdivision of 
our government are made at Bismarck by the State 
legislature. Hence the county needs no legislative 
branch, but only an executive and a judicial branch. 
However, such simple local lawmaking as a county 
actually does need (lawmaking, that is, concerning the 
functions we have just discussed) is done by the board 
of county commissioners. These five men (or three 


COUNTY, TOWNSHIP, AND VILLAGE 237 

in some counties) may be called a “committee” to 
transact the business of the county. They meet at 
the courthouse the first week of every month, look over 
all the bills of the county and pay those which the 
county legally owes. They also see that the county 
buildings are in good condition. Once a year they 
levy the taxes for the county. An example of the 
amount of these taxes and the functions of government 
for which they are spent is given at the end of this chap¬ 
ter. The county auditor acts as clerk of this board 
whenever it is in session. The term of the county 
commissioner is four years. 

County Officers.—The other county officers are 
elected for a term of two years only. The nine princi¬ 
pal ones are the following: 

(1) County Auditor .—He is the bookkeeper of the 
county and the clerk of the board of county commis¬ 
sioners. 

(2) County Treasurer .—He is the collector of all 
taxes and the “custodian” of the county funds, which 
he deposits in the various banks of the county. 

(3) County Sheriff .—He is the protector of the pub¬ 
lic peace. Some sheriffs have proved to be heroes in 
preserving law and order in the face of a mob. The 
sheriff is also the minister (servant) of the courts, ex¬ 
ecuting the various orders and writs that are turned 
over to him. This is now his chief work. 

(4) Clerk of Court .—He keeps official records and 
papers pertaining to the district court. Applications 
for naturalization papers are made at his office. 


238 WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 

(5) Register of Deeds. —He keeps in a permanent 
form, in huge books, a verbatim copy of every deed in 
the county, and puts his stamp upon the deed when 
he records it. This is to prevent disputes about the 
ownership of the land. 

(6) State’s Attorney. —He is to see that the State 
laws are enforced in his county, and, if there are any 
violations, that the violators are brought to trial. He 
also furnishes, on request, free legal advice to the other 
county officials, on all matters pertaining to their duties. 

(7) County Judge. —The county judge or “ county 
court,” as he is also frequently called, has charge of the 
probate matters of his county, that is, of wills, appoint¬ 
ment of guardians, and settlement of estates. He also 
issues marriage licenses. 

(8) Superintendent of Schools. —He is the connect¬ 
ing link between the school teacher on the one hand 
and the State superintendent of public instruction on 
the other. The success of the common school depends 
in part on each link in this chain. The county super¬ 
intendent carries out the instructions of the State 
superintendent, holds teachers’ examinations four 
times a year, visits the public schools, encourages 
country teachers with their work, and keeps important 
records of all school matters within his county. 

(9) Coroner. —It is the duty of the coroner to make 
a careful inquiry or “inquest” when a death has ap¬ 
parently been due to violence or other unlawful means. 
He must report in writing the cause of the death, if he 
can learn it. 


COUNTY, TOWNSHIP, AND VILLAGE 


239 


County Boards.—In addition to the Board of County 
Commissioners described above, the county has other 
boards, one of the most important of which is the Board 
of Health. One member must be a doctor, and he is 
called the “superintendent of public health.” A second 
member is known as vice president. These two are 
chosen by the county commissioners. The State's 


- 

.: 

SI V 


_. _ _Ju||g^ 


Township Hall 


attorney is, by virtue of his office, president of the 
Board of Health. 

The Township.—The civil township is formed like 
a new county,—by first petitioning the county com¬ 
missioners and then voting on the proposition. The 
township is the one subdivision of our State where 
we find government in the form of a pure democracy. 
Here, on the third Tuesday in March of each year, the 
voters meet in some schoolhouse or in the town hall, 
in the annual “town meeting.” The powers and duties 










240 WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 

of the annual town meeting are: (1) election of town¬ 
ship officers, (2) making of simple rules and regulations 
of the township, and (3) levying the township tax. 
Small as this division of our local government is, we 
find these seven offices to be filled: (1) office of super¬ 
visor (three men); (2) clerk; (3) treasurer; (4) assessor; 
(5) justices of the peace (two men); (6) constables (two 
men); (7) overseers of highways (one man for each road 
district in the township—usually three or four dis¬ 
tricts). This means that there may be fourteen men 
elected to carry out the work of the township. But in 
actual practice there are not always fourteen men 
elected, first, because not all the offices are filled, and 
second, because one man may sometimes hold two 
offices. The most important office is that of super¬ 
visor, for which the term is three years. The other 
officers all serve one year, except the justice and con¬ 
stable, who serve two years. 

Board of Health.—The township supervisors form 
the Board of Health of their township, and may make 
and enforce regulations for the prevention of disease. 
It is their duty to quarantine homes where there are 
contagious diseases. 

Board of Review.—The supervisors also sit in June 
as a Board of Review to examine the work of the as¬ 
sessor. They are supposed to cure all inequalities be¬ 
tween individuals found on the assessor’s books. Some 
boards meet for two days, some for a few hours only, 
some not at all. 

Town Meeting.—One of the most famous things in 


COUNTY, TOWNSHIP, AND VILLAGE 241 

America is the town meeting—especially the New 
England town meeting. North Dakota has also the 
annual town meeting conducted in much the same 
manner as the celebrated New England institution. 
The following account of a North Dakota town meeting 
was written by an eyewitness. 

Description of a Town Meeting. -“One Tuesday 
morning in March the writer traveled a few miles over 



Township in Session 


a very muddy road to the Town hair to attend his 
first town meeting in North Dakota. The town hall 
of this township is a neat white building, a made-over 
schoolhouse, with an upper story. The upper por¬ 
tion is a large, airy, light room where the meeting is 
held, and is furnished with a big, substantial table, a 
stove, chairs, and benches. The lower portion is used, 
as the writer discovered, for the storage of the town- 
Civics N. Dak.—16 













242 WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 


ship’s road machinery, scrapers, plow, and road grader. 
At about half past eight o’clock in the morning, the 
officers began to arrive, bringing full dinner pails, and 
prepared to stay all day. These men were all sturdy 
farmers. They had come to North Dakota some years 
before from various parts of the world. Two were 
from Minnesota and one from New York, States where 
the town meeting has long been in use. One was from 
Iowa, a State that has no town meeting. One was from 
Scotland, a country with a different form of govern¬ 
ment from ours. One was from Sweden. 

“Five men were present when the clerk took his 
position at the long table, and the meeting was opened 
for business. The first matter to come up was the 
‘ business of the township.’ The only business that 
any one mentioned was the levy of the township tax. 
‘What shall our road tax be?’ one asked. ‘What was 
it last year?’ No one seemed to know. The clerk 
could not say, for he had forgotten to bring part of his 
records. Finally one of the supervisors, who was also 
justice of the peace, figured out the last year’s levy as 
six mills. ‘Six mills’ was then proposed. There was 
no debate as to how much was needed. So it was voted 
unanimously that the road tax levy should be six mills, 
because that was what it had been the year before. 
To pay the salaries of the township officers, to buy 
lumber for a few culverts and small bridges, and to 
meet a few other expenses, the lump sum of $ 500 was 
voted. This sum meant a levy of about three mills, 
and so the township levy, for all purposes, amounted 


COUNTY, TOWNSHIP, AND VILLAGE 243 

to about nine mills. Voting the taxes took about five 
minutes of time, caused no debate, and finished the 
business part of the town meeting. Nothing else re¬ 
mained to be done except the election of officers. Only 
six men were present at the meeting in the forenoon. 
Each secured an office, and two of them two offices 
apiece. The township contains forty voters, but only 
seven came out to the meeting and voted. The day 



Officers of a Township 


was pleasantly spent, but not in considering such town¬ 
ship matters as good roads, public health, assessment, 
taxation, finance, and so on. Very frank and very 
entertaining discussions were had, however, of these 
questions: The President of the United States; the 
United States Senate; William J. Bryan; R. M. LaFol- 
lette; the Money Power; Trade Relations with Canada; 
Political Relations with Mexico. 






244 WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 


Annual Township Meeting 
Ballot 

For Supervisors, 

Chairman 


For Town Clerk, 

For Treasurer, 

For Assessor, 

For Justices, 

For Constables, 

For Overseer of Highways, 

First District 

Second District 
Third District 


“ At noon the dinner pails 
were opened and their more 
than ample contents were 
spread, like a feast, on the 
table. The good housewives 
at home had crowded these 
large pails not only with 
substantial slices of bread 
and butter, but also with 
cake and pie. 

“Late in the day the 
‘ town meeting ’ was over for 
another year. The actual 
carrying on of the township 
business for the ensuing 
year was left in the hands 
of the three supervisors. 
Many a real business meet¬ 
ing these men must have 
before another March comes 
around.” 


This account describes a 


Fourth District poorly-attended town meet- 


For Pound Masters, 


For Commissioners of Con¬ 
ciliation, 


ing. Of course it often hap¬ 
pens when some question 
of much local interest arises, 
such as a contest for an of¬ 
fice, the purchase of expen¬ 
sive road machinery, or the 
paying of the road tax in 
























COUNTY, TOWNSHIP, AND VILLAGE 245 

money instead of in labor, that a full meeting is pres¬ 
ent. But as a rule, the voters do not take a very ac¬ 
tive interest in the government of the township. 

The Village.—Frequently a village of two hundred 
people grows up about the townhall, the schoolhouse, 
or elsewhere in the township. Its inhabitants may 
decide to “incorporate” and thus set up a govern¬ 
ment of their own, independent of the township. This 



Beginning of a Village 


they can easily do by petitioning the county commis¬ 
sioners for permission to incorporate and by holding a 
special election. When a village has incorporated, it 
has, like all the other subdivisions of our government, 
become a “body politic and corporate.” That is, it 
has power to carry on government, hold elections, levy 
taxes, etc., and also powers common to simple busi¬ 
ness corporations, such as to hold property, make 
contracts, sue and be sued. The people now find 
their taxes slightly higher. But, in return, they have 








246 WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 

certain advantages in being incorporated as a village. 
They have better protection against fire, for they 
organize some system of fire fighting; they have bet¬ 
ter protection against burglars, for they now employ 
a night watch; they have better roads, sidewalks, and 
bridges. Sometimes the inhabitants of a village re¬ 
fuse to incorporate long after the village has two hun¬ 
dred inhabitants, doing without village government 
in order to save the small expense involved. But usu¬ 
ally the protection against burglars and night fires is 
worth many times the cost to the village. 

Village Officers.—Each year in May the village 
elects its officers, chief among which are: trustees 
(one for each district in the village), clerk, assessor, 
treasurer, marshal, justice of the peace. 

The trustees may deal with public health questions, 
and then they constitute a Board of Health. They 
are required also to review the assessor’s book, and 
then they constitute a Board of Review. 


Questions on the Text 

1. This chapter treats of what six functions and three subdivisions 

of local government? 

2. What organs are used for carrying out these functions? 

3. How may a new county be formed? 

4. How is the county seat located? How may a county seat be 

changed to a new location (two restrictions)? 

5. Does a county have three branches of government? Where are 

its laws made? 

6. Define clearly the work of the “committee” which manages the 

county’s affairs. 

7. Who is the clerk of this county board? 


COUNTY, TOWNSHIP, AND VILLAGE 


247 


8. Name all the county officers. Which are elected for two years? 

Which for four years? 

9. State the duties of each of the nine county officials. 

10. How is the civil township formed? 

11. What is the distinctive feature of township government? 

12. State three duties of the town meeting. 

13. Name the seven principal offices to be filled in a township. 

How many men may it take and how many does it usually 
take to fill these offices? 

14. State the terms of office of these men. Which office is most 

important? 

15. Name two important township boards, and explain the duty of 

each. 

16. Give a description of a town meeting as told by an eyewitness. 

17. In the case of the meeting just described, did the voters mani¬ 

fest as much knowledge of, and interest in, local township af¬ 
fairs as in national government affairs? 

18. Give the following facts about a village: minimum size; steps 

necessary for incorporation. 

19. What is meant by a “body politic”? By a “body corporate ”? 

20. Give reasons for and against incorporation by a village. Which 

is the better course in the end? 

21. Name the village officers, and tell when they are elected. 

22. Who looks after the public health of the village? Who reviews 

the assessor’s books? 

23. Make a list of the boards in county, township, and village. 

24. Make a list of the officers of the county, township, and 

village. 


Questions Suggested by the Text 

1. Give the names and addresses of your county commissioners. 

2. Give the name of your county superintendent of health. 

3. Has your county a superintendent of highways? 

4. Name the other officers of your county. 

5. Give the names of your township officers (or village officers, 

if you live in a village). What offices are not filled? 

6. What county officers can serve only two terms in succession? 

7. Where would a person go to record a deed? To have a bill 


248 


WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 


against the county paid? To secure a marriage license? To 
have a person arrested? 

8. Can you cite an example of a village suffering loss by fire or 

burglars? Of a village saved from loss by having a marshal 
or a night watchman? 

9. What county officers have to do with each of the following: 

Good Roads; Health; Charity; Police and Justice; Finance 
and Taxation; Education? 

10. Which of these functions are represented also by State officials? 

11. Make out a financial statement for your county, similar to that 

on page 249. 

12. Make out a financial statement for your township, similar to 

that on page 250. 

13. Make out a list of the road machinery owned by your township. 

Describe the split log drag. 

References 

Hart, “Actual Government,” Ch. 28. 

Dunn, “The Community and the Citizen,” Ch. 15. 

Fairlie, “Local Government in Counties, Townships, and Villages,” 
Chs. 4-9, 11. 


COUNTY, TOWNSHIP, AND VILLAGE 


249 


Cass County Finances. Expenditures, Jan. 1—Dec. 31, 1908 

Education. $38,783.79 

Health. 154.00 

Good Roads. 31,524.50 

Police and Justice. 34,891.75 

District Court. $15,110.28 

Justice Courts. 8,112.02 

County Court. 3,738.42 

Jail. 2,548.93 

Prisoners. 5,382.10 

Charity. 24,455.98 

County Hospital. 16,991.67 

County Poor. 4,533.86 

County Insane. 1,090.45 

County Physician. 1,840.00 

Salaries of county officers (including clerks and depu¬ 
ties) . 30,834.77 

Five Commissioners. 2,845.95 

Sheriff. 2,130.19 

Register of Deeds. 5,499.84 

Auditor. 7,062.42 

Treasurer. 5,407.02 

State’s Attorney. 3,066.30 

Superintendent of Schools. 4,407.50 

Surveyor. 68.00 

Coroner. 347.55 

Courthouse. 1,208.20 

Elections. 4,641.06 

County Fairs. 357.25 

Interest and Sinking Fund. 14,286.09 

Miscellaneous. 11,938.64 

Books and Stationery. 2,614.88 

Fuel and Lights. 1,893.00 

Printing and Advertising. 2,610.45 

Janitor and Engineer. 1,354.36 

Telephone and Postage. 980.15 

Sundries. 2,485.80 

Total. 


$193,076.03 






































250 


WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 


Township Finances 
Town of Falconer, 1910 


Income 

1. Cash. $998.40 

Tax. $850.00 

Balance. 148.40 

2. Labor, Road Tax . $562.20 


Total. $1,560.60 


Expenditure 

1. Good Roads. $1,152.29 

Cash. Bridges and Culverts $546.09 
Road Overseers.... 44.00 

Labor. Road Tax. 562.20 

2. Public Health . 

3. Police and Justice . 

4. Finance and Taxation. Assessor . . 35.00 

5. Other Officers. 56.57 

6. Miscellaneous . 14.50 

Filing Bonds. . $1.50 
Repairs . 13.00 

7. Town Hall, Permanent Improvements 283.35 

Total. $1,541.71 

Balance on hand. 18.89 


















CHAPTER XXI 


THE CITY 

“ Two tests of practical efficiency may be applied to the government 
of a city: What does it provide for the people, and what does it cost 
the people? ” Bryce, ‘ American Commonwealth, Vol. I, Ch. 51. 

City Government.—When a village has grown in 
population to five hundred, and when the voters therein 
favor the change, by a majority vote, the village be¬ 
comes a city. All official records must thenceforth 
mention it as a “city.” A city has a charter or general 
framework of laws ‘under which it is governed, much 
as a State has its Constitution. The charter is very 
important, since in it are defined all the city’s powers 
to regulate its affairs, pa’ve its streets, build its parks, 
and pass city ordinances or laws. May a city, for 
example, own its street car system? Yes, if its charter 
gives it that power; otherwise no. The city gets its 
charter from the State legislature, and has no power 
to frame its own charter. In some States, cities have 
power to frame their own charters, and present them 
to the legislature for approval; in other places they 
frame their own charters and do not present them to 
the legislature for approval, but operate under them 
as they are. In short, in some States but not in this 
State, city government is “home rule.” The North 
Dakota legislature has framed a general plan—or rather, 
251 


252 WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 


two general plans—of city government, and any city 
which is ready for a charter finds one, ready made, as 
described below. 

City Election.—To separate city elections from State 
and national politics, the annual city election is held in 
April. 



A Faithful Street Cleaner 


Two Forms of Government.—The State law pro¬ 
vides two distinct plans of city government. They 
are (1) the Mayor and Council plan, for any city re¬ 
gardless of size; (2) the Commission plan, for cities of 
over 2,000 population. Let us compare these two 
forms. 


Mayor and Council Plan 

The mayor and council plan is patterned closely 
after our national and State governments. It has a 
legislative branch, the city council; an executive branch, 




THE CITY 


253 


FOURTH WARD PRIMARY ELECTION BALLOT 
GRAND FORKS CITY PRIMARY ELECTION, MARCH 6, 1906 



REPUBLICAN PARTY 

OFFICE 

CANDIDATES 


Mayor— 

JOHN DINN1E 

□ 



□ 

Police 

J. R. CHURCH 

□ 

Magistrate— 


□ 

City 

p. McLaughlin 

□ 

Justice— 


□ 

City 

T. J. HAGEN 

□ 

Treasurer— 


□ 


Vote for one name only— 



0. KNUDSON 

IT 

Alderman— 

A. L. McCALLUM 

□ 



□ 


(Australian Ballot) 

FIFTH WARD, CITY OF GRAND FORKS, N. D. 
GENERAL CITY ELECTION, MONDAY, APRIL 2, 1906 


OFFICE 

REPUBLICAN 

INDIVIDUAL 

NOMINATIONS 

□ 

Mayor— 

JOHN DINNIE □ 

GEORGE E. DUIS □ 

n 


Police 

Magistrate— 

J. R. CHURCH 

M. REILLY 



City 

Justice— 

p. McLaughlin 

R. J. PURCELL 



City 

Treasurer— 

T. J. HAGEN 

B. F. BROCKHOFF 



Alderman— 
Term 2 years 

W. A. HILL 

K. C. HUNTER 


n 

Alderman 
Term 1 year 

GEORGE W. BUCKINGHAM □ 

CHARLES A. LOUGHIN 

□ 

□ 























































254 WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 

the mayor and city departments; and & judicial branch, 
the police magistrate and city justice of the peace. 
Under this form of city government the five elective 
officers of the city are the following: (1) office of al¬ 
derman—two men 
from each ward; (2) 
mayor; (3) treas¬ 
urer; (4) police 
magistrate; (5) city 
justice. The ap¬ 
pointive officers of 
the city are the au¬ 
ditor, the city at¬ 
torney, the city 
assessor, the health 
officer, and the 
chief or heads of the various city departments, such 
as police, fire, water, streets, etc. 

The Council.—The city council is composed of the 
mayor and two aldermen from each ward. The mayor 
presides, but has no vote except in case of a tie. 
The council usualty meets one evening every month, 
and the meetings are of course open to the public. 
Like Congress and the State legislature, the council 
refers all important questions to appropriate com¬ 
mittees for investigation and report. In this way a 
mass of detailed and intricate business receives per¬ 
sonal attention. 

The powers of the council are of three classes:— 

(1) Financial Powers .—The council has full control 







THE CITY 


255 


over the city's finances. It levies taxes. It spends 
the money. It may also borrow money up to the debt 
limit of the city, a limit which is fixed in the State Con¬ 
stitution. 

(2) Power over Appointment— The council has power 
to confirm or reject the mayor's appointments. If it 
does not favor the man appointed by the mayor, he 



Street Lighting 


is rejected and another name is presented by the mayor 
for approval. 

(3) General Legislative Powers .—The council has 
power, under its charter, to make rules called or¬ 
dinances, covering the local affairs of the city, such 
as streets, street lighting and paving, police and fire 
protection, the regulation of various occupations and 
trades carried on in the city, etc. It may erect a city 
jail. It may erect a city hospital. It may grant the 
use of its streets and alleys to private corporations that 








256 WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 

render important public service, such as street railways, 
telephone companies, gas companies, etc. The right 
to use public property for private gain in this manner 
is called a franchise. The corporation in return for 
the franchise ought to render definite service to the 
city, such as supplying street car service that can be 

depended on, and 
gas that is good in 
quality and fair in 
price. The grant¬ 
ing of franchises is 
one of the most im¬ 
portant powers of 
the American city. 

Mayor and De¬ 
partments. — The 
mayor is the chief 
executive of the 
city and, like the governor, he has the veto power. He 
appoints (with the consent of the council) all heads 
of city departments. He has the power of removal of 
any of his appointees at any time. 

A city has a Board of Health, made up of six persons 
as follows: four aldermen; the city engineer; and one 
physician appointed by the mayor. The physician is 
called the health officer. His work is important in 
preventing, by proper quarantine, the spread of such 
diseases as diphtheria and scarlet fever, especially if 
these dreadful diseases get into the public schools of 
the city. 









THE CITY 


257 


Police Magistrate and City Justice of the Peace.— 

The city has a “police court” to hear the cases brought 
before it by the police. Here offenses against the city 
ordinances are tried. The city justice of the peace has 
the same powers and duties as the county and township 
justices. 


The Commission Plan 


In 1907, North Dakota passed a law providing for 



the commission plan 
of city government. 
We have already seen 


Public Library 


how our count¬ 
ies are managed 
by a board (or 
commission as it 


A Well-kept Residence Street 


might be called) of three or five men, called county 
commissioners. This plan of government has been im¬ 
proved upon and applied to cities. The North Dakota 
law permits cities of 2,000 population or over to change 
to the commission plan if they prefer it. They may 
take a vote on it. Soon after the law was passed, 
Mandan, Bismarck, and Minot adopted the commission 
plan. But Fargo, Grand Forks, and Dickinson voted 


Civics N. Dak.—17 









258 WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 



not to adopt it. We may describe this plan briefly as 
follows:— 

Under the commission plan, the offices of mayor 
and council are abolished. There is created instead 
a commission of five men, with all the powers of the 

old mayor and 
council concen¬ 
trated in their 
hands. They 
are elected for 


A Business Street 


four years (instead of 
two years), and from 
the city at large (in¬ 
stead of separate 
wards). Meetings are 
held once a week and are open to the public. An 
aye and nay vote must be taken, and recorded on 
the journal, on all questions involving taxation. This 
commission of five men appoints and removes all city 
officers, fixes all salaries, including their own, makes all 
the rules and ordinances governing the city, and grants 
all franchises. In short, great power is given to these 
five men, and they are held responsible for its use or 
abuse. Which plan is better for North Dakota is a 










THE CITY 


259 


much debated question that must be left to each city 
to decide for itself. 

Questions on the Text 

1. Discuss the city: size and how formed; the charter; relation 

to State legislature; amount of home rule. 

2. When is the city election held? Why? 

3. Name two forms of city government. 

4. Under the first form discuss: three branches of city government; 

elective and appointive officers; term; composition and powers 
of council; the mayor; health; courts. 

5. What is a franchise? How is it granted under each form of 

government? 

6. Under the second form discuss: date of law; applies to what 

size; manner of adoption; choice of first six cities voting on 
the plan; the commission,—its composition, term, salary, 
powers, and duties. 


Questions Suggested by the Text 

1. Debate. “ Resolved, that the commission plan of city govern¬ 

ment, as provided for in the North Dakota Session Laws of 
1907, Ch. 45, is preferable to the existing mayor and council 
plan.” 

2. Why are franchises so important to a city? If a city gives 

away a franchise, can it later get it back for nothing? Can 
you give the experience of any great city with franchises? 

3. The government of any particular city can be understood only 

by studying very minutely the administration of that city. 
The following statements and statistics present the actual 
government of the city of Grand Forks for one year. On 
the basis of this general outline, the pupil should prepare a 
similar statement for his own city. 


260 WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 


City, School, and Park District of Grand Forks Expendi¬ 
tures, Debts, and Inventory, 1910 

The people of the city are citizens of three distinct subdivisions 
of local government, namely, (1) the City of Grand Forks; 
(2) the School District of Grand Forks; and (3) the Park District 
of Grand Forks. Each of these three incorporated bodies has its 
own separate elections, its own separate governing body, levies its 
own taxes, and has power to borrow money. Hence the three divi¬ 
sions are outlined separately below, although they occupy the same 
territory and contain the same people. 


I. City 

A. Mayor and Council. $ 1,000 

Mayor, Salary $100 a year 

Council, 14 men, meet monthly. $2 per meeting. 

Auditor and Treasurer. 5,000 

B. Departments 

Police (11 persons). 11,400 

Street, Roads, Bridges. 18,500 

Civil Engineering. 5,000 

Legal. 1,700 

Light. 12,700 

Fire. 11,600 

Health. 8,000 

Water. 23,100 

Finance and Taxation (assessing and equalizing) 2,200 


C. Miscellaneous 

Charity. 

Hay Market. 500 

Interest. 24,500 

Library. 3,000 

Miscellaneous. 4,500 


Total 


$132,700 



















THE CITY 


261 


II. School District 


Receipts 


Balance from Last Year. $ 16,526.53 

State Tuition Fund. 27,370.00 

County Fund. 13,790.40 

District Tax. 87,417.42 

Miscellaneous. 11,479.99 


Total. $156,584.34 


Expenditures 


Teachers’Wages.. $ 51,714.58 

Permanent Improvements. 13,287.94 

Apparatus, Books. 2,639.09 

School Officers, Janitors. 5,495.58 

Interest.,. 7,360.23 

Miscellaneous. 17,909.99 

Warrants Outstanding. 3,260.83 


Total. $101,668.24 


III. Park District 

Superintendent of Parks, Overseers, Laborers.... $ 3,000 


Permanent improvements. 7,000 

Total. $ 10,000 


Debt 


City . 
School 
Park . 


$374,000 

150,000 

40,000 


Total 


$564,000 

























262 WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 

Inventories 


City 

Waterworks. $ 374,056 

Fire Department. 57,000 

Street, Bridges, Sewer, Paving. 1,477,561 

Light. 81,000 

Health (Detention Hospital). 10,000 

Library. 40,000 

City Hall. 80,000 

Hay Market. 6,000 


Total. $2,125,617 

School 

Central School . $ 80,000 

Belmont. 70,000 

Washington. 40,000 

Winship . 20,000 

Wilder. 35,000 

Roosevelt. 43,000 

Real Estate. 25,000 


$313,000 

Parks 

Lincoln Park, 105 acres 
Central Park, 15 acres 
Riverside Park, 60 acres 
University Park, 20 acres 
Triangles, 2 acres 


202 acres 
Value $100,000 

Summary of Inventory 


City. $2,125,617 

School. 313,000 

Parks. 100,000 


Total 


$2,538,617 

























CHAPTER XXII 


STATE REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE 

“(1) The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the 
support of the government, as nearly as possible in proportion to their 
respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they 
respectively enjoy under the protection of the state.” Adam Smith, 
“Wealth of Nations,” Bk. V., Ch. 2, Part II. 

Expenditure.—There are two practical tests to ap¬ 
ply to State government: What does it cost? What 
does it furnish the taxpayer? The Constitution itself 
sets some limits to the amount of money which the 
State may spend, and to the objects for which it may 
spend money. 

The State legislature may levy a tax which must not 
“exceed in any one 3^ear four (4) mills on the dollar of 
the assessed valuation of all taxable property in the 
State/' in addition to the amount needed for the in¬ 
terest and principal of the State debt. This, the pupil 
will note, is a much smaller rate of tax than the county 
tax, the city tax, or the school district tax. The yield 
of the State tax increases year by year as the assessed 
valuation of the State increases. When, for instance, 
the assessed valuation is $400,000,000, the 4 mill tax 
will yield $1,600,000 income. The State can spend four 
mills a year plus any other amount which it can raise 
from other sources than taxation. Taxation is the chief 

263 


264 WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 


source, but not the only source of revenue, as the dis¬ 
cussion below shows. 

The expenditure of the State must be constitutional, 
and for strictly public purposes. The levy of a tax 
on the public for some private purpose would be rob¬ 
bery and not taxation. 

The five chief objects of expenditure a.re:— 

(1) The three branches of State government. 

(2) Education. 

(3) State Institutions. 

(4) Interest on State Debt. 

(5) Wolf Bounty. 

The chief item of expense is the State Institutions. 
The support of the State Penitentiary ^nd the Insane 
Asylum costs the State much more than that of the 
Agricultural College and the State University. In 
other words, these two institutions to care for the 
criminal and the defective classes of the State are a 
greater burden than the two for higher education. The 
State can afford to spend a great deal now to prevent 
crime, to cure insanity, and to foster education, if only 
crime and insanity can be lessened in the future. Yet 
these two evils are not decreasing. What must be done 
about it is one of those problems of civil government 
which the future is to solve. 

Revenue.--The State must depend, for its income, 
first of all on taxation. But this source is limited by 
the Constitution. Hence other important sources are 
now used. The four chief sources of revenue are: — 

(1) Taxation. 


STATE REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE 


265 


(2) Fees and licenses. 

(3) Industries. 

(4) Land. 

The State tax system is based on the “general prop¬ 
erty tax,” that is, there is a uniform tax rate applied 
to all property, whether it is land or buildings, mer¬ 
chandise or live stock, mortgages, money, railroads, 
or any other kind of property. In other words, all 
property is treated alike. Some States have found 
that certain kinds of property are easy to hide and 
accordingly escape taxation. Hence they have aban¬ 
doned the “general property tax” and have introduced 
various other methods of making every man contrib¬ 
ute according to his ability. North Dakota also has 
taken three steps in this direction. In addition to the 
general property tax, the State has three other taxes: 
(1) corporation tax, applied only to insurance com¬ 
panies; (2) inheritance tax of 2 per cent on estates of 
over $25,000 left to collateral heirs (that is, not direct 
heirs such as father, mother, wife, child, etc.); (3) 
small tax, lower than the general property tax, on 
grain in farmers’ granaries and elevators. These are 
the first steps toward the abolition of the general prop¬ 
erty tax. 

How Railroads are Taxed .—Railroads are very im¬ 
portant tax payers in parts of our State. This is es¬ 
pecially true in those counties, townships, and school 
districts having several miles of road. The manner 
of taxing railroads is very simple: 

(1) The assessment or valuation of the roads is made 


266 WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 


by a board of five men in Bismarck, known as the 
State Board of Equalization. This board consists of 
the governor, auditor, treasurer, commissioner of agri¬ 
culture and labor, and attorney-general. They have 
statistics furnished them by the roads, covering all the 
railroad property including even the number of rails 
and ties. On this basis they estimate the value of the 
railroad, including its track, roadbed, right of way, 
rolling stock, and franchise. The board divides this 
valuation by the number of miles of road in the State 
and so finds the value per mile. 

(2) The State board reports this valuation to the 
various counties, on the basis of the mileage in the 
county. The tax on the railroad property is then 
collected by the county treasurer in the same manner 
as the tax on land and other property. Thus if a school 
district contains five miles of railroad assessed at 
$15,000 a mile, the total valuation is $75,000 for that 
district. The county treasurer knows this valuation, 
and also the rate of the school tax. If the rate of this 
tax is 20 mills, for instance, he collects a school tax 
of $1,500 from the railroad for this one school district, 
at the time when he collects all the other taxes levied 
against the railroad. 

Similar Corporations .—The following public service 
corporations are assessed and taxed in the same way 
as railroads: (1) street car companies, (2) telephone 
companies, (3) telegraph companies, (4) express com¬ 
panies, (5) all other corporations carrying passengers, 
goods, or messages. 


STATE REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE 


267 


Industries .—The two industries which the State 
conducts are the street railway at Bismarck, running 
from the city to the State capitol, and the twine plant, 
conducted at the penitentiary at Bismarck, by the 
prisoners. This plant furnishes wholesome and useful 
labor to the prisoners, makes some profit for the State, 
and gives the wheat grower twine at a low price. The 
State does not go into the business to make money. 

Land .—The land granted to the State by the Federal 
government consisted of about 3,000,000 acres. Thus 
our State became a large landlord. Two and a half 
million acres of this land are for common schools only, 
the remaining 500,000 acres being divided among 
twelve institutions. The rent of this land where it is 
still unsold, and the interest on the money, where it 
has been sold, make an income ranking next to taxa¬ 
tion in importance. 

Debt.—Our State debt can never be very large— 
never more than a few cents for each individual; for 
the Constitution limits it to 1200,000. The Federal 
debt is five thousand times this size. 

Questions on the Text 

1. Give two practical tests of State expenditure. 

2. What limitations are set to State expenditures? 

3. Name the five chief objects of expenditure. 

4. Which is the largest item? 

5. Compare the cost of maintaining prisons and schools. Show 

that each is necessary. 

6. Name the four sources of State revenue. Which is the chief 

source? 

7. Describe and criticize the general property tax. 


268 WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 


8. What three additional taxes does our State use? 

9. Define each tax. 

10. How are railroads taxed? 

11. What other corporations are taxed in the same way? 

12. What two industries does the State own and operate? Show 

the benefits of these. 

13. Explain the State land system. 

14. What is the limit of the State debt? 

Questions Suggested by the Text 

1. What was the total assessed value of the State last year? 

2. At how much were railroads assessed? 

3. Problem. If Mr. A, in your school district, pays taxes amount¬ 

ing to a total of $100, how many dollars of this sum go to each 
of the following divisions: State, county, school district, city 
(or village or township)? 

4. Compare the per capita debt of the nation and the State. 

5. If you have a railroad in your school district, ascertain how 

much school tax was paid by it last year. (Consult the 
county auditor or the county treasurer). 

6. What property in your community is assessed by the State 

Board of Equalization and what property .by the local as¬ 
sessor? 

7. Should the State conduct any industry “to make money”? 

References 

See following State reports: 

Report of State Board of Equalization, Bismarck. Issued an¬ 
nually. 

Annual Statement of State Treasurer, Bismarck. 

Report of Commissioner of University and School Lands, Bis¬ 
marck. Issued biennially. 

Bryce, “American Commonwealth,” (1910 edition), Vol. I, Ch. 43. 
Dunn> “The Community and the Citizen,” Ch. 25. 


CHAPTER XXIII 


ELECTIONS AND POLITICAL PARTIES 

“The fate of republican government depends upon the ability of the 
people to express their will without influence or fraud.” Hart, “Actual 
Government,” p. 85. 

Nominations. —Before we elect candidates to any 
office they must be nominated. Who names, that 
is, nominates the candidates? Political parties. It is 
necessary that candidates for each office be nominated 
in some regular way, for if every man voted for his 
own choice, no one would receive a majority of votes 
and no one would fairly represent a large number of 
citizens. Hence each voter casts his vote at election 
time for a candidate who has already been nominated, 
whom possibly he has helped to nominate. 

The Primary Election .—The method of nomination 
in this State is by the “primary election.” The pri¬ 
mary election does not elect; it merely nominates candi¬ 
dates. Our primary election law was first adopted in 
1905, but has since then been amended. The law states 
that there shall be held a primary election in June in 
the various voting precincts of the State, for the nomi¬ 
nation of candidates, for the following offices to be 
voted for at the general election: presidential electors, 
members of Congress, members of State legislature, 
State executive officers, county officers, judges, and also 
269 


270 WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 


United States senator in the year previous to his elec¬ 
tion by the State legislature. This system provides 
for all candidates from the county officials up to the 
President. The President is still nominated in the old 
nominating-convention style described in Chapter IV. 

In cities the primary election is held in March at 
which time candidates are named for the elective 
offices to be filled at the regular April election. 



Polling Place on Quiet Election Day 


The candidate seeking nomination by the primary 
election method must circulate a petition among his 
friends, and secure the requisite number of signers. 
His name then goes on the primary election ballot of 
his party. He is probably one of several candidates 
seeking nomination to the same office. The voter at 
the primary asks for the ballot of his party. The 
different parties have the same polling place, but 







ELECTIONS AND POLITICAL PARTIES 


271 


DEMOCRAT 

Primary Election Ballot 

“ To vote for a person whose name is printed on the ballot, mark a cross (X) 
in the square at the right of the name of the person for whom you desire to vote.” 

“To vote for a person whose name is not printed on the ballot, write or paste 
his name in the blank space provided for that purpose.” 


UNITED STATES 
SENATOR 

Vote for i Name Only 

STATE SENATOR 

Vote for i Name Only 

JOHN L. CASHEL □ 

SEVENTH 

DISTRICT 

GEORGE E. DUIS □ 

W. E. PURCELL □ 

□ 

□ 

MFMRFPS OF 

Vote for 2 Names Only 

REPRESENTA¬ 
TIVES IN 
CONGRESS 

Vote for 2 Names Only 

THE HOUSE OF 
REPRESENTA¬ 
TIVES SEVENTH 
DISTRICT 

D. M. HOLMES □ 

TOBIAS D. CASEY □ 

G. THOMPSON □ 

O. G. MAJOR □ 

□ 

L. S. PLATOU □ 

□ 

□ 


Vote for i Name Only 

□ 

SHERIFF 

□ 

GOVERNOR 

Vote for i Name Only 

□ 

Vote for i Name Only 

JOHN BURKE □ 

AUDITOR 

□ 

HANS ANDERSON □ 

LIEUTENANT 

GOVERNOR 

Vote for i Name Only 

□ 

A. BESANCON □ 


Vote for i Name Only 

H. D. MACK □ 

TREASURER 

□ 

□ 


□ 

JUSTICE OF THE 
SUPREME COURT 

Vote for i Name Only 

CLERK OF 
DISTRICT COURT 

Vote for i Name Only 

B. F. SPALDING □ 

E. MONTGOMERY □ 

□ 

□ 

SECRETARY OF 
STATE 

Vote for i Name Only 

REGISTER 

OF 

DEEDS 

Vote for i Name Only 

JOSEPH MANN □ 

□ 

B. G. WHITEHEAD □ 

□ 

□ 

STATF’S 

Vote for i Name Only 

STATE AUDITOR 

Vote for i Name Only 

ATTORNEY 

T. R. BANGS □ 

B. F. BROCKHOFF □ 


□ 

□ 


Vote for i Name Only 

STATE 

TREASURER 

Vote for i Name Only 

COUNTY JUDGE 

□ 

J. E. CAMPBELL □ 

□ 

□ 


Vote for i Name Only 

SUPERINTENDENT 
OF PUBLIC 
INSTRUCTION 

Vote for i Name Only 

OF SCHOOLS 

HELEN PRINDE-D 

W. A. GODWARD □ 

VILLE □ 

□ 


Vote for i Name Only 

ATTORNEY- 

GENERAL 

Vote for i Name Only 

"PUBLIC 

ADMINISTRATOR 

OLE DRENGSON □ 

D. J. O’CONNELL □ 


□ 

□ 

COUNTY 

Vote for i Name Only 

COMMISSIONER 
OF INSURANCE 

Vote for i Name Only 

SURVEYOR 

□ 

C. H. ANHEIER □ 

□ 

□ 


Vote for i Name Only 

COMMISSIONER 
OF AGRICULTURE 
AND LABOR 

Vote for i Name Only 

CORONER 

□ 

JOHN L. HARVEY □ 

□ 

□ 


Vote for 4 Names Only 

COMMISSIONER 
OF RAILROADS 

Vote for 3 Names Only 
T. J. DOUGHERTY □ 

CONSTABLES 

GEORGE H. BOYD □ 

□ 

J. N. McGOGY □ 

□ 

H. J. MITCHELL □ 


□ 

LOUIS G. SCHELL Q 
□ 

□ 

JUSTICES 

OF 

THE PEACE 

Vote for 4 Names Only 

□ 

R. J. PURCELL □ 

□ 

T. E. SMITH □ 

□ 


Vote for x Name Only 

C. F. TEMPLETON □ 

DISTRICT JUDGE 
FOR FIRST 
DISTRICT 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 



PRECINCT 

COMMITTEEMEN 

Vote for 3 Names Only 

□ 

□ 

























































































































































272 WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 


separate ballots. The primary election then deter¬ 
mines which candidates are duly nominated to repre¬ 
sent their party in the regular November election. 

Party Committees. —To keep the political parties 
duly organized and alive between elections, that the}^ 
may make the regular nominations from year to 
year, the primary election law contains this interest¬ 
ing provision: At the primary election each voter shall 
write, in a space left for that purpose, the names of 
not more than three qualified electors of the precinct 
for members of his party precinct committee. The three 
having the highest number of votes constitute such 
committee, and the one having the largest number is 
the chairman. The chairmen of the precinct commit¬ 
tees form the county committee of each county. The 
county committee must meet in August following the 
primary, and organize by selecting a chairman, a secre¬ 
tary, and a treasurer. This committee also selects 
some person as a member of the State central commit¬ 
tee. The State central committee meets in September 
at the State capital, organizes, and chooses one person 
as a member of the national committee. The State 
central committee also writes a party platform. 

The Boss, Ring, and Machine. —Under the old system 
there were no primary elections. The same party com¬ 
mittees, however, existed then as now. The men who 
took a prominent part in this committee work (and 
only a few ever took any interest in it) formed the 
party organization, and kept the party alive between 
elections. A party organization was sometimes known 


ELECTIONS AND POLITICAL PARTIES 


273 


REPUBLICAN WOMEN’S 
Primary Election Ballot 


“ To vote for a person whose name is printed on the ballot, mark a 
cross (X) in the square at the right of the name of the person for whom 
you desire to vote.” 

“ To vote for a person whose name is not printed on the ballot, write 
or paste his name in the blank space provided for that purpose.” 


SUPERINTENDENT 

OF PUBLIC 

INSTRUCTION 

VOTE FOR i NAME ONLY 

FRED E. SMITH Q 

WALTER L. STOCKWELL 

□ 

COUNTY 

SUPERINTENDENT 
OF SCHOOLS 

n 

□ 


DEMOCRAT WOMEN’S 
Primary Election Ballot 

“ To vote for a person whose name is printed on the ballot, mark a 
cross (X)in the square at the right of the name of the person for whom 
you desire to vote.” 

“To vote for a person whose name is not printed on the ballot, write 
or paste his name in the blank space provided for that purpose.” 


SUPERINTENDENT 

OF PUBLIC 

INSTRUCTION 

VOTE FOR i NAME ONLY 

W. A. GOD WARD Q 

□ 

□ 

COUNTY 

SUPERINTENDENT 
OF SCHOOLS 

HELEN PRINDEVILLE 

□ 


Civics N. Dak.—18 





























274 WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 

as “ the machine.’’ The man who named the candidates 
(and often one man could do it) was known as the 
“boss.” The immediate circle of advisers of the boss 
was called the “ring.” The boss had the hard and 
disagreeable task of finding candidates for office—candi¬ 
dates that were likely to win. The boss himself seldom 
ran for office. Some bosses were good and upright 
men; some were men with bad reputations. Now it 
is evident that the primary election aims to do away 
with the boss by forcing all the voters to express their 
own choice in nominating candidates, thereby taking 
the boss’s job away from him. But will the voters 
bestir themselves enough to name their own candi¬ 
dates? If not, then indeed they are not fit for self- 
government, and must have the old boss over them 
again. 

Independent Nominations .—It is possible for a man 
to be a candidate on an “independent ticket.” By 
petition of his friends, he may have his name placed 
on the regular election ballot, in a separate column, 
marked “Individual Nominations.” The trouble with 
this method is that a candidate without the support 
of a political party is usually defeated at the election. 
Yet we have examples of strong men securing election 
in this way. 

The Election.—The qualifications of the voter are 
determined by the Constitution of the State. He must 
be a citizen of the United States; aged twenty-one 
years or over; a resident of the State one year, of the 
county six months, and of the precinct ninety days. 


ELECTIONS AND POLITICAL PARTIES 


275 


OFFICE TO BE 
VOTED FOR 

REPUBLICAN 

□ 

DEMOCRATIC 

□ 

INDIVIDUAL 

NOMINATIONS 

INDIVIDUAL 

NOMINATIONS 

REPRESENTATIVES IN 
CONGRESS 

L B HANNA Q 

TOBIAS D. CASEY Q 

A HAGEN DORK, Sue. □ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

H.T HELCfcSEN □ 

M A. H1I.DRETU Q 

N H BJORNSTEAP. SoeD 

□ 1 

a 

□ 

□ 

□ L 

GOVERNOR 

C. A JOHNSON □ 

JOHN BURKE Q 

I S LAMPMAN.Sug g 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

LIEUTENANT GOV¬ 
ERNOR 

USHER L. BURDICK □ 

W L RICHARDS Q 

J E KULSTAD, Sue. Q 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

SECRETARY OF STATE 

P D NORTON □ 

W F ROBERTSON □ 

G A ESVAL. Soc, Q 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

G 

STATE AUDITOR 

D K BIUGHTBILL □ 

PETER G ROOKS □ 

J SCHOLLAERT, Soc Q 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

STATE TREASURER 

GUNDER OLSON □ 

II L HALVORSON □ 

M C WARTENBE Soc. □ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

SUPERINTENDENT OF 
PUBLIC INSTRUCTION 

EDWIN J. TAYLOR □ 

□ 

MRS E C PAINE, Soc □ 

□ 

□ 

n 

□ 

□ 

ATTORNEY-GENERAL 

ANDREW MILLER □ 

s. L NUCHOLS □ 

A LeSUEUR. So □ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

COMMISSIONER OF 
INSURANCE 

WALTER C. TAYLOR □ 

C s. WHITTLESEY □ 

C W MAUDE, Soc. Q 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

COMMISSIONER OF AGRI¬ 
CULTURE AND LABOR 

W C GILBREATH □ 

ALEX MORRISON □ 

E A MEYER. Soc, Q 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

COMMISSIONERS OF 
RAILROADS 

O P N ANDERSON □ 

J I HANSON Q 

S. A JOHNSON. Soc. □ 

□ 

u 

□ 

□ 

□ 

W H MANN □ 

GEO L MATEER □ 

WM TAMS. Son, □ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

W H. STUTSMAN □ 

F L. WALKER □ 

H N FISHER. Soc. □ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

REPRESENTATIVES 
FIFTH LEGISLATIVE 
DISTRICT 

ALBERT A DAVIS Q 

HENRY G. LINK □ 

a 

G 

□ 

Q 

□ 

n 

JOHNS KYLLO □ 

C.J8UNDAHL □ 

□ 

G 

□ 

□ 

□ 

n 

COUNTY AUDITOR 

JOHN W SCOTT □ 

HANS ANDERSON □ 

□ 

n 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

•COUNTY TREASURER 

H A. SHAW Q 

M J MORAN □ 

□ 

n 

□ 

□ 

□ 

n 

SHERIFF 

wm McLaren □ 

JOSEPH Z BENSON □ 

□ 

□ 


□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

CLERK OF DISTRICT 
COURT 

M W SPAULDING □ 

FRANK HANSEN □ 

□ 

n 

□ 

□ 

□ 

q 

REGISTER OF DEEDS 

A. M. LOOM ELL □ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

STATE’S ATTORNEY 

OLGER B. BURTNESS □ 

TRACY R BANGS □ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

COUNTY JUDGE 

L. K HASSELL □ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

SUPERINTENDENT OF 
SCHOOLS 

FRANCES M WAGAR □ 

HELEN PRINDEVILLEQ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

D 

□ 

COUNTY SURVEYOR 

THUS L. LAWSON □ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

COUNTY CORONER 

J. E. HETIIER1NGTON □ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

COUNTY COMMISSIONER 
FIFTH COMMISSIONER 
DISTRICT 

ROBERT HADDOW □ 

DANIEL MUIR □ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

COUNTY JUSTICES OF 
THE PEACE 

AND AAKER □ 

R J. PURCELL □ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

THEODORE HOLTON □ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

P McLOUGHUN □ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

F C. NYE □ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

COUNTY CONSTABLES 

RICHMOND FADDBN □ 

GEORGE H. BOYD □ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

J C MAHON □ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

u 

□ 

□ 

J W LOWE □ 

□ 

□ 

□ 


□ □ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 


□ 

□ 

□ 

□ 















































































































































































































276 WORKINGS OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT 


WOMENS BALLOT 


REPUBLICAN 


DEMOCRATIC 


We have woman suffrage only in school elections, for 
the county and State superintendent. 

The time of the general election is the first Tuesday 
after the first Monday in November. Voting is done 
by secret ballot, known as the Australian ballot. This 
ballot contains on one sheet a complete list of all par¬ 
ties and all candidates. The voter steps into a private 
booth and marks his ballot, folds it, and then sees it 
dropped into the ballot box. Since this is a secret 

ballot, it is harder to con- 
JUDICIAL BALLOT , , , 

trol by corrupt means. Il¬ 
legal voting or illegal count- 



Vote For Three 


W. M. ANDERSON 

□ 


E. T. BURKE 

□ 

For Judges 
of the 

CHARLES M. COOLEYQ 

S. E. ELLSWORTH 

□ 

Supreme 

Court 

CHARLES J. FISK 

□ 


E. B. GOSS 

□ 


□ 


□ 


□ 


betrayal 


There are usually five elec- 
_□ tion officers on hand to see 
J3 that the voting is pure, 
13 namely, one inspector, two 
_ judges (one for each political 


keep a record of the names 
of those voting, in order to prevent “repeating.” In 
cities, all voters must register some days before election. 




























ELECTIONS AND POLITICAL PARTIES 


277 


Of all countries in the world, we are most liberal 
in allowing citizens the high privileges of the ballot. 
The rich and the poor, the educated and the ignorant, 
all are equal in using the ballot. We have universal 
manhood suffrage, which is one of the mightiest of edu¬ 
cational forces. The safety of our Republic lies in a 
wise use of the ballot. 

Questions on the Text 

1. Define nominations; show need and methods of nomination. 

2. State the chief provisions of our primary election law. 

3. Does it “elect”? To what offices does it apply? 

4. Is nomination by a primary election a party nomination? 

5. Is a nonpartizan nomination now possible? 

6. When is the city primary election held? 

7. Explain the party committee system as now in use? 

8. Explain the terms boss, ring, machine. 

9. Show the need of a boss. How is that need met? 

10. What way is now provided for nominating a President? 

11. Show how a person may be nominated to office without the aid 

of a political party. Criticize this method. 

12. Discuss the election; when held; qualification of voters; 

woman suffrage. 

13. What is the Australian ballot? What are its benefits? 

14. Why is illegal voting such a serious evil? 

15. What can you say about universal suffrage in this State? 

Questions Suggested by the Text 

1. Who is your precinct committeeman? 

2. Who is chairman of your State central committee? 

3. Secure copies of sample ballots, both primary and Australian, 

and note their differences. 

References 

Hart, “Actual Government,” Chs. 4, 5. 

Bryce, “American Commonwealth” (1910 ed.,) Vol. I, Chs. 45, 46, 


APPENDIX 


UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT, 1911 

E. D. White, Chief Justice 

0. W. Holmes 

Chas. E. Hughes 

H. H. Lurton 

J. R. Lamar 

Jno. M. Harlan 1 

W. R. Day 

W. Van Devanter 

J. McKenna 


NINE CIRCUIT COURTS OF APPEALS, 1911 


Number Presiding Judge 

1. 0. W. Holmes 

2. Chas. E. Hughes 

3. H. H. Lurton 

4. E. D. White 

5. J. R. Lamar 

6. Jno. M. Harlan 

7. W. R. Day 

8. W. Van Devanter 


9. J. McKenna 


States in Circuit 
Me., N. H., Mass., R. I. 

Vt., Conn., N. Y. 

N. J., Pa., Del. 

Md., W. Va., Va., N. C., S. C. 
Ga., Fla., Ala., Miss., La., Tex. 

O. , Mich., Ky., Tenn. 

Ind., Ill., Wis. 

Minn., Ia., Mo., Ark., Neb., 
Colo., Kan., N. Dak., S. Dak., 
Okla., Wyo., Utah. 


Calif., Idaho, Mont., Nev., Ore. 
Wash., Hawaii, 
deceased, October, 1911 
278 


APPENDIX 


279 


ELECTION OF 1888. ELECTION BY A MINORITY 


Popular Vote Electoral Vote 
Cleveland Harrison Cleveland Harrison 


Alabama. 

. . . 117,320 

56,197 

10 

- 

Arkansas. 

85,962 

58,752 

7 

- 

California. 

. . . 117,729 

124,816 

- 

8 

Colorado. 

37,567 

50,774 

- 

3 

Connecticut. 

74,920 

74,584 

6 

- 

Delaware. 

16,414 

12,973 

3 

- 

Florida. 

. . . 39,561 

26,657 

4 

- 

Georgia. 

... 100,499 

40,496 

12 

- 

Illinois. 

. . . 348,278 

370,473 

- 

22 

Indiana. 

.. . 261,013 

263,361 

- 

15 

Iowa. 

. . . 179,877 

211,598 

. - 

13 

Kansas. 

. . . 102,745 

182,904 

- 

9 

Kentucky. 

. . . 183,800 

155,134 

13 

- 

Louisiana. 

85,032 

30,484 

8 

- 

Maine. 

50,481 

73,734 

- 

6 

Maryland. 

106,168 

99,986 

8 

- 

Massachusetts. 

. . . 151,855 

183,892 

- 

14 

Michigan. 

. . . 213,469 

236,387 

- 

13 

Minnesota. 

. . . 104,385 

142,492 

- 

7 

Mississippi. 

85,471 

30,096 

9 

- 

Missouri. 

. . . 261,974 

236,257 

16 

- 

Nebraska. 

80,552 

108,425 

- 

5 

Nevada. 

5,326 

7,229 

- 

3 

New Hampshire. . . . 

43,382 

45,724 

- 

4 

New Jersey. 

.. . 151,493 
.. . 635,757 

144,344 

9 

- 

New York. 

648,759 

- 

36 

North Carolina. 

. . . 147,902 

134,784 

11 

- 

Ohio. 

... 396,455 

416,054 

- 

23 

Oregon. 

26,522 

33,291 

- 

3 

Pennsylvania. 

. . . 446,633 

526,091 

— 

30 

Rhode Island. 

17,530 

21,968 

— 

4 

South Carolina. 

65,825 
.. . 157,779 

13,736 

138,988 

9 

- 

Tennessee. 

12 

- 

Texas. 

. . . 234,883 

88,422 

45,192 

13 

— 

Vermont. 

16,788 

- 

4 

Virginia. 

. . . 151,977 

78,677 

150,438 

12 

— 

West Virginia. 

78,171 

6 

— 

Wisconsin. 

.. . 155,232 

176,553 


11 

Total. 

... 5,538,233 

5,440,216 

168 

233 

Plurality. 

98,017 



65 
























































- *•* 























































INDEX 


A 

Abraham, head of family govern¬ 
ment, 10 

Agricultural College, 171, 226 
Agriculture, Federal Department 
of, 113, 138 

Agriculture and Labor, State De¬ 
partment of, 170 
Aldrich, Senator, 119 
Ambassadors, 138 
Amendments to Federal and State 
Constitutions, 34, 39 
Appeal, 18S 

Appellate jurisdiction, 129 
Aristocracy, 20 
Aristotle, quoted, 159 
Army, 137 

Assessment, of property, 222; of 
railroads, 265 

Attorney-General, Federal, 107; 
State, 170 

Auditor, State, 169; county, 237 
Australian ballot, 253, 275 

B 

Bail, 184 

Ballinger-Pinchot controversy,! 10 
Ballots, model, 244, 253, 271, 273, 
275, 276 

Banks and bank notes, 141 
Bible, 129 

Bill of Rights, Federal, 26; North 
Dakota, 26 

Bills, before Congress, 122, 123; 

before State legislature, 175 
Bimetallism, 140 

Boards and Commissions, State, 


170; county, 239; township, 
240; village, 246; city, 256 
Borrowing, 232 
Boss, 273 

Bryan, nominated, 101 
Bryce, quoted, 128, 167, 192, 195, 
206, 221, 251 

Buchanan, weak executive, 21 
Budget, Federal, 107 
Bureau, Pension, 112; Education, 
112; Weather, 112; Corporation, 
114; Labor, 114; Census, 114 


C 

Cabinet, 99, 105 
Census Bureau, 114 
Charity, 213-215 
Charter, city, 251 
Child labor, 230 
Circuit Courts of Appeals, 129 
Citizens, defined, 19 
City, 251; charter, 251; election, 
252; forms of government, 252, 
257 

Civics, defined, 23 
Civil action, 182, 188 
Civil service, 103-104 
Climate of North Dakota, 164 
Collection of taxes, 224 
Commerce and Labor Depart¬ 
ment, 114, 138 
Commerce Court, 153 
Commission plan of city govern¬ 
ment, 257 

Commissioner of Corporations, 
158 

Committee system, of Congress, 


282 


INDEX 


123; State legislature, 175; city, 
254 

Common schools. See Education 
Compulsory education, 230 
Congress, 118, 120; taxing power, 
121; commercial powers, 121; 
territorial powers, 121; miscel¬ 
laneous powers, 121; express 
and implied powers, 122; proc¬ 
ess of lawmaking, 122; com¬ 
mittee system, 123 
Constitution, defined, 21; outline 
of, 25-40; of United States, 41- 
56; of North Dakota, 57-97; 
adoption of State, 162 
Constitutional convention, North 
Dakota, 162 

Consular service, 106, 138 
Contracts, 134 
Cooperation, 14 
Coroner, 238 

Corporations and trusts, 35, 36, 
114 

Council, city, 254 
County court, 183; government 
of, 236; officers, 236-238 
Courts, Federal, Supreme, 128; 
Circuit Courts of Appeals, 129; 
District Courts, 130; Court of 
Commerce, 131; jurisdiction of, 
131; equity, 132; workings of, 
133 

Courts, State, supreme, 180, 185; 
district, 180, 185; county, 181; 
justice, 181,184; municipal, 181; 
work of, 182 
Credit money, 142 
Crime, 183 

Criminal actions, 183, 187 
D 

Dakota Territory, 159-163 
Dante, 20 

Dartmouth College case, 134 
Debt, city, 262; Federal, 267; 
State, 38, 267 


Defendant, 188 
Democracy, 20, 239 
Devine, editor of “Survey,” 
quoted, 213, 217 
Diplomatic service, 106 
District Courts, Federal, 130; 

State, 180, 185 
District, school, 227 
Double standard, 140 
Duties, defined, 19 

E 

Education, in the family, 11-12; 
Federal commissioner of, 113; 
State Department of, 170; sys¬ 
tem in North Dakota, 226; 
school board, 229; teachers’ in¬ 
stitutes, 229; branches to be 
taught, 229; pupil’s, 230; county 
superintendent of, 238 
Election, of president, 101; city, 
252; State, 269, 274; primary, 
269 

Elective franchises, 35 
Electoral College, 101 
Elkins Act, 153 
Equalization, 223 
Equity, 132 
Eskimos, 10 

Executive branch, Federal, de¬ 
fined, 21; outline of, 31; work of, 
98 

Executive Departments, State, 31, 
167-172 

Expenditures, Federal, 137; State, 
263 

Exploration of Dakota, 160 
F 

Family, government of, 10; im¬ 
portance of, 11-16 
Federal principle, 22 
Felony, 183 

Finance, Federal, 137; county, 221, 
248; township, 221, 250; school 


INDEX 


283 


district, 230; city, 260; State, 
263 

Fiske, quoted, 137 
Flags for schools, 228 
Forestry service, 113 
Franchises, 134, 256 
Franklin, quoted, 17 
Free coinage, 140 
Free schools, 226 
Free textbooks, 229 

G 

Garfield, assassination of, 104 
General property tax, 222, 265 
Gold money and certificates, 142 
Good Roads, Division of (Fed¬ 
eral), 113; need of, 194, 195; 
present system, 196; changes 
proposed, 198; progress made, 
203 

Government, need of, 9; defined, 
10; kinds of, 10, 20; as co¬ 
operation, 14; civil government 
defined, 19, 23; three branches, 
21 

Governor, 167 
Grant, 107 
Greenbacks, 141 

H 

Harrison, 163 
Hart, quoted, 180, 269 
Health, family’s part in, 12; public 
health laboratory, 171, 206, 209; 
and local government, 206, 209; 
control of diseases, 206; preven¬ 
tion of disease, 207; boards of 
health, 209-210, 239 
Hill, Pres. James J., quoted, 146 
House of Representatives, Fed¬ 
eral, 119; State, 174 

I 

Impeachment, 39 
Implied powers, law of, 122 


Indians of Dakota, 112, 159, 160 
Individual nominations, 274 
Indoor relief, 213 
Industries of State, 267 
Injunction, 132 

Insurance, commissioner of, 170 
Interior, Department of, 110 
Internal revenue, 139 
Interstate Commerce Act, 152 

J 

Jackson, strong executive, 21 
Jayne, Dr. Wm., first governor of 
Dakota, 162 
Jefferson, 110 

Jews, family government among, 
10 

Judicial procedure, 187-190 
Judiciary, Federal, 21, 28, 128, 
153; State, 32, 180 
Judiciary ballot, 276 
Jurisdiction, of Federal courts, 
129, 130, 131; of local courts, 
183; of State courts, 185, 187 
Jury, 186 

Justice, Department of, 107 
Justices of the peace, 181, 184, 256 

K 

Knapp, Martin A., quoted, 144 
Kossuth, Louis, quoted, 98, 235 

L 

Labor, Federal Bureau of, 114 
Land, public, 110; how disposed 
of, 111, 146; North Dakota 
lands, 231, 265, 267 
La Verendrye, 160 
Law, State Department of, 170; 
interpreted by Supreme Court, 
185 

Law enforcement, 168, 182, 217 
Lawmaking, Federal, 122-124; 
State, 176-178 


284 


INDEX 


Lee, 107 

Legislative branch, defined, 21; 

outline of Federal and State, 29 
Legislative Reference Library, 178 
Legislature, State, 174-178; mem¬ 
bers, 174; organization, 175; 
process of lawmaking, 176; 
powers of, 178 
Lewis and Clark, 160 
Lieutenant Governor, 169 
Lincoln, quoted, 9, 19, 182; educa¬ 
tion of, 11; strong executive, 21; 
appoints Dr. Jayne, 162 
Local courts, 183 
Local government, 192, 193, 235 

M 

“Machine,” 273 
Mandamus, 168 
Marshall, Chief Justice, 129 
Mayor, 256 

Mayor and Council plan of city 
government, 252 

McKinley, war appropriation, 
125; death of, 14 
Militia, 39 
Misdemeanor, 183 
Monarchy, 19 

Mone}', 140; real and credit 
money, 142 

Municipal corporations, 35 
N 

National currency, 141 
Naturalization, 237 
Naval Academy, 110 
Navy, 109, 137 

Nominations, of President, 100; by 
political party, 269; independ¬ 
ent, 274 

North Dakota, government of, 
159-191; State organized, 163; 
growth, 163; resources and cli¬ 
mate, 164. See also State 


O 

Office, of patents, 112; of Indian 
affairs, 112 
Oil inspector, 171 
Oligarchy, 20 
Original jurisdiction, 129 
Outdoor relief, 214 


P 

Pardons, how granted, 102 
Parties, political, 269, 272, 277 
Party committees, 273 
Patents, 112 

Pembina, first settlement, 161 
Pensions, 112, 137 
Pierce, weak executive, 21 
Pinchot, Gifford, forester, 113 
Plaintiff, 188 
Plea, 187 

“ Pocket veto,” 105 
Police and Justice, 217 
Police court, 182, 183 
Political parties, 269, 277 
Poor relief, 213, 214 
Post office, 103, 108, 138 
Postage, rates of, 109 
Preamble, to Federal Constitution, 
25; t'o Constitution of North 
Dakota, 25 

President, chief executive, 99; his 
cabinet, 99; nomination, 100; 
qualifications, term, salary, 102; 
powers and duties, 102; veto, 
104 

Primary election, 269 
Probate courts, 183 
Prohibition law, 168 
Property, protection of, 182; per¬ 
sonal, 222 

Public health. See Health 
Public lands. See Lands 
Pure food, work of Federal gov¬ 
ernment, 113; North Dakota 
commissioner, 171 


INDEX 


285 


R 

Railroads, need of, 144; history of, 
146; bonds, 148; stock, 149; 
capitalization, 150, 155; watered 
stock, 150; pooling, 152; legisla¬ 
tion, 152, 153, 155, 158, State 
commission, 170; taxation of, 
265 

Ratification, 34 
Reform School, 219 
Reprieves, 102 
Republic, 21 

Revenue and taxation, 38, 263- 
267. See also Taxation 
Rights, defined, 19 
Ring, 273 
Roads, 195 

Rural consolidated school, 228 

S 

Sakakawea, 160 
Samuel, 129 

Schools. See Education 
Secretary (Federal) of State, 106; 
of Treasury, 107; of War, 107; 
of Justice, 107; of Navy, 109 
Secretary of State, in North Da¬ 
kota, 169 
Senate, 118 

“ Senatorial courtesy,” 103 
Separation, of branches of govern¬ 
ment, 21 

Settlement of North Dakota, 161 
Sherman, 107 

Sherman anti-trust law, 153 
Silver money and certificates, 142 
Smith, Adam, quoted, 263 
Society, defined, 10 
Speaker, 120, 123 
Spoils system, 103 
State, defined, 19; government of, 
19; peace and dignity of, 182, 
183, 217 

State institutions, 172 
State Department, Federal, 106; 
State, 169 


State tuition fund, 231 
Summons, 188 

Superintendent of Schools, County, 
229, 238; State, 229 
Supreme Court, Federal, 21*, 128; 
State, 180, 185 

Surveying of public lands, 111 

T 

Taft, nominated, 101 
Tariff, 139 

Taxation, Federal, 138, 220; gen¬ 
eral property, 222; assessment 
and equalization, 222, 223, 266; 
collection, 224; for schools, 230; 
State, 264; of railroads, 265; 
corporations, 266 
Teachers, 229 
Teachers’ Institute, 229 
Textbooks, free, 228 
Town meeting, 20, 240-243 
Township, officers, 239; meeting, 
239-243 

Treasury Department, Federal, 
106; State, 170 
Treaties, 102 
Trusts, 107 

U 

University, 171 

V 

Veto, 104; “pocket veto,” 105 
Vice President, 105 
Village, 245, 246 

W 

War Department, 107 
Washington, George, 129; quoted, 
226 

Watered stock, 157, 159 
Weather Bureau, 113 
West Point, 107 
Wolf bounty, 264 
Woman suffrage, 276 







































































































































One copy del. to Cat. Div. 


DEC 2» 



